The WHO has said the outbreak in DR Congo’s eastern Ituri province is a public health emergency of international concern, but did not meet the criteria of a pandemic.

The agency has also warned it could potentially be “a much larger outbreak” than what is currently being detected and reported, with significant risk of local and regional spread.

More than 28,600 people were infected by Ebola during the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa, the largest outbreak of the virus since its discovery in 1976.

The disease spread to a number of countries within and outside of West Africa, including Guinea, Sierra Leone, the United States, the United Kingdom and Italy, killing 11,325 people.

Jean Kaseya, the head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, told the BBC earlier that the number of suspected cases had reached almost 400.

He said that in the absence of vaccines and effective medicines people should follow public health measures, including the guidance about handling the funerals of those who have died from the disease.

“We don’t want people infected because of funerals,” he told the BBC World Service’s Newsday programme.

Community funerals, where people helped wash the bodies of their loved ones, contributed to many people becoming infected in the earlier stages of the big outbreak more than a decade ago.

The WHO has advised DR Congo and Uganda, two countries with confirmed cases, to undertake cross-border screenings to avoid the virus spreading.

It has also urgednearby countries to “enhance their preparedness and readiness”, including surveillance at health facilities and communities.

Neighbouring Rwanda said it would be tightening screening along its border with DR Congo as a “precautionary measure”, while Nigeria said it was “closely monitoring the situation”.

BBC