Health authorities are scrambling to locate almost 300 people who tested positive for Ebola and have since vanished from official monitoring systems, raising alarm over a potentially uncontrolled spread of the virus across Central and East Africa.

The head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control has confirmed that these patients, identified during the current outbreak centered in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are no longer being tracked by surveillance teams. Their disappearance is seen by experts as a critical failure in contact tracing, the backbone of any Ebola response.

More than 1,100 infections have been confirmed in DR Congo, with at least 291 deaths. While the outbreak remains largely concentrated there, neighboring Uganda has reported 20 cases and two deaths, underscoring the region’s vulnerability. In a stark reminder of how quickly the virus can travel, a French doctor who recently returned from Congo also tested positive, prompting heightened screening in Europe.

New projections by the World Health Organization warn that, without stronger control measures, the outbreak could escalate to more than 8,000 cases and 1,400 deaths within months. The agency estimates a 70 percent probability that the virus will spread into South Sudan, a country with a fragile health system and large populations already displaced by conflict.

Under a worst-case scenario modeled by international health experts, the number of infections could surge past 60,000, overwhelming treatment centers and exhausting vaccine supplies. Such a spike would reverse hard-won gains made since the West Africa Ebola crisis, when delayed action and weak surveillance allowed the virus to spiral out of control.

This is the 17th Ebola outbreak recorded in DR Congo and already the most severe in the country’s history. More than a million people in the affected eastern provinces remain beyond the reach of health workers because of armed conflict, roadblocks, and deep mistrust of authorities. Teams attempting to trace contacts or transport patients have faced attacks, looting, and community resistance.

Public health officials say finding the missing patients is now an urgent priority. Each unmonitored case represents a chain of transmission that can silently extend across borders, turning a contained emergency into a regional catastrophe.