People living close to the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak which has killed 131 people have told BBC News of their fear, as a World Health Organization (WHO) representative warned cases may be spreading faster than originally thought.
One man in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ituri province, the epicentre of the outbreak, said infected people were dying “very fast”, and added: “Ebola has tortured us.”
Officials said more than 513 cases were suspected in DR Congo as of Tuesday, while one person has died in neighbouring Uganda.
The WHO’s Dr Anne Ancia told the BBC that the more the agency investigates the outbreak, the clearer it becomes cases have spread to other areas.
Modelling by the London-based MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis released on Monday suggested there had been “substantial” under-detection, and that it could not rule out there had already been more than 1,000 cases.
The study suggested that the current outbreak is “larger than currently ascertained” and that its “true magnitude remains uncertain”.
A man who spoke to BBC News and identified himself as Bigboy said people are “really scared” and doing what they can to protect themselves.