The public health risk from the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been upgraded from high to very high, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

"We are now revising our risk assessment to very high at the national level," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference.

He said the Ebola outbreak in Congo is “spreading rapidly” and now poses a “very high” risk at the national level.

The risk remains high for regional spread and low at global levels, he told reporters.

The WHO chief noted that 82 cases have been confirmed in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with seven confirmed deaths, “but we know the epidemic in DRC is much larger.”

He said there are now almost 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths.

The situation in neighbouring Uganda is “stable” with two cases confirmed in people who had traveled from Congo, with one death.