A health worker at a hospital in Ituri province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo asks for help in receiving a person suspected of having Ebola. Credit: Glody Murhabazi/AFP via Getty

The tally of people with suspected and confirmed cases of Ebola in central Africa is rocketing upwards with shocking speed — from 256 cases on 16 May to roughly 1,000 as of 27 May. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), some 240 people have died — and the outbreak shows no signs of slowing down (see ‘Ebola’s surge continues’).

But specialists say that they have tools to help to control the outbreak, which is for now confined to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Uganda, thanks to hard-won expertise gained during previous Ebola epidemics .

Source: WHO and WHO disease outbreak news reports/Resolve to Save Lives

The DRC, which is the epicentre of the current outbreak , has contended with several outbreaks of Ebola over the years, notes Chima Ohuabunwo, an epidemiologist at Morehouse School of…