The number of confirmed Ebola cases in the Democratic Republic of Congo has increased to 710, including 149 deaths, government data showed.
The number represented the total number of confirmed cases as of Friday, according to a situation report that documented 21 new cases in the previous 24 hours.
More than 100 people have died from Ebola less than a month after authorities declared an outbreak of the disease in eastern Congo, a grim toll as officials intensify efforts to slow the disease discovered weeks late.
Rare virus strain
The World Health Organization said that over the last 24 hours, only 137 samples have been tested, with 35 coming back positive.
The latest Ebola outbreak is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which does not have an approved vaccine or treatment unlike the "Zaire virus," another name for the Ebola virus, responsible for most of Congo's past 16 outbreaks of the disease.
The rapid increase in the number of cases is partly due to the scale up of diagnostic capacities, enabling testing of the backlog of previously collected samples, authorities said.
