What we know about the spread of Ebola amid growing outbreak in DRC

At least 363 cases and 62 deaths have been confirmed in the DRC.

A deadly Ebola outbreak is continuing to spread across the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with global health officials warning that "we are still behind."

As of Wednesday, 363 cases of Ebola and 62 deaths have been confirmed, according to the Congo Ministry of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In neighboring Uganda, 15 cases and one death have been confirmed, health officials said.

The latest DRC Ebola situation report shows the outbreak has now reached Mambasa, a new health zone located more than 160 kilometers south of the mining town of Mongbwaluin in Ituri province, where cases have been concentrated. This suggests the virus is continuing to spread geographically.

"The outbreak had a big head start and we are still behind ... but we're catching up," Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization, said during a press briefing on Wednesday.

Recently, the WHO ruled out hundreds of suspected cases after investigation. Although some local health officials suggested that community transmission may be slowing, many public health specialists cautioned that data is very incomplete. The specialists also noted that contact tracing is weak and far below the level needed to contain the outbreak.

However, the specialists acknowledge that the public health response is ramping up and that health authorities are getting a better sense of how many confirmed cases there are.

Dr. Megan Coffee, an infectious disease physician and a senior specialist in infectious diseases in health unit of the aid organization International Rescue Committee (IRC) highlighted the importance of clarifying certain details as they try to control the outbreak.

"To be able to say what is the case fatality, what is the percentage of cases that have been identified, and what have been the percentage of people who are potentially in a chain of transmission may been exposed and may develop Ebola," she told ABC News.

On Tuesday, the WHO said there were 116 suspected cases, with hundreds of suspected cases ruled out after investigation.

That came after the global health agency said on Friday that 906 suspected cases were under investigation. However, in an op-ed by published in the Financial Times on Sunday, the director-general of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, ​wrote that there were more than 1,100 suspected cases.

When asked about the massive drop, WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told reporters at the agency's headquarter