Chief Sanitary Inspector Paweł Grzesiowski said the rapid rise in infections linked to outbreaks in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda suggested the epidemic was still in its early stages.
"In my opinion, the situation is very serious because an exceptionally high number of cases was detected from the very beginning," Grzesiowski told reporters in Warsaw.
He said previous Ebola outbreaks typically began with a handful of identified infections, while the current outbreak was only detected after more than 200 cases had already emerged.
“Within a week, we have recorded a threefold increase in infections; there are now 600 reported cases,” he said.
Grzesiowski warned that many of the infections now being identified probably occurred one to three weeks earlier, meaning a larger wave of cases could still lie ahead.
He added, however, that the risk to Poland remained low.
Poland's foreign ministry has issued a travel warning advising against travel to border regions of Congo, Uganda and South Sudan following the outbreak.
The current epidemic has been linked to the Bundibugyo strain of the Ebola virus, which the World Health Organisation has classified as an epidemic outbreak in Congo and Uganda.
Doctors say the Bundibugyo strain is transmitted to humans through close contact with the blood or bodily fluids of infected wild animals, including bats and primates, and can then spread between people through direct contact.
The incubation period ranges from two to 21 days, after which patients typically develop flu-like symptoms.
According to virologist Agnieszka Szuster-Ciesielska of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Lublin, eastern Poland, the Bundibugyo strain is less deadly than some other Ebola variants, but still carries a mortality rate of between 25 and 50 percent.
There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments specifically targeting the Bundibugyo strain, experts say.
(gs)
Source: IAR, PAP