The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has put the number of those killed by the Ebola outbreak at 32 people as the deadly virus takes more toll in the West African states.

On Saturday, DRC Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said the Ebola epidemic had so far led to the deaths of 32 people, while there were 59 likely or confirmed cases of the tropical fever in the country.

The “big challenge” was to survey suspicious cases in order to staunch the contagion, said the senior health official. Kinshasa has given itself 45 days to break the transmission of Ebola.

The United Nations said last week that it had provided the Kinshasa government with USD 1.5 million to help the country battle the Ebola outbreak.

Ebola was first discovered in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976 in an outbreak that killed 280 people.

On September 3, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Ebola virus had claimed the lives of over 1,900 people in West Africa, expressing hope that the disease could be contained “in six to nine months.”

The international medical agency Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has recently said the world is losing the battle against the deadly virus.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa was first reported in the forests of southeastern Guinea in March.

Ebola is a form of hemorrhagic fever whose symptoms are diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding. The virus spreads through direct contact with infected blood, feces or sweat. It can also be spread through sexual contact or the unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.