The Ebola outbreak in Congo that’s spread across parts of Africa has killed more than 200 people in its first month and is considered the worst known outbreak at this stage, Africa’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Thursday.

Ebola cases have surged 38 percent since last week, spreading across 32 health zones in eastern Congo. Health officials at Africa CDC said the current outbreak, with 894 confirmed cases so far, is three times worse than Uganda’s previous Ebola outbreak in 2000, which had 281 confirmed cases at the same stage.

Congo’s eastern province of Ituri accounts for more than 90 percent of confirmed cases. Infections have also been reported in Congo’s North Kivu and South Kivu provinces, and have spread into neighboring Uganda, where health officials recorded 19 confirmed cases and two deaths.

But contact tracing efforts have been hampered by the remoteness of the outbreak zones, funding and personnel shortages, as well as displacement, according to Dr. Wessam Mankoula, a medical epidemiologist at Africa CDC.

Years of conflict in Ituri province have displaced nearly one million people, complicating efforts to track potential exposures as residents flee.

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