Volunteers are supporting Congo's Ebola outbreak response with cooked meals in a program assisted by the U.N. food agency.

The outbreak remains focused in Congo's eastern Ituri province. Congo has reported over 1,000 suspected cases with the Bundibugyo virus, which has no approved treatment or vaccine.

The main airport in Ituri, the DR Congo province at the epicentre of an Ebola outbreak, reopened on Tuesday after a 10-day closure for safety reasons, the government said. The Democratic Republic of Congo is battling a major epidemic of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever that is suspected to have killed at least 246 people

Health officials are scrambling to fast-track a vaccine as the Democratic Republic of Congo battles a growing Ebola outbreak with at least 282 confirmed cases of the rare Bundibugyo strain and 42 deaths.

A chronic lack of investment in development of better tests has left clinicians blind and allows deadly viruses to spread unchecked.

The epicenter of the Ebola outbreak is in Mongbwalu, a poor gold-mining town of 130,000 people, in Ituri province, in eastern Congo.

Experts say several crises combine to make this Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, the scene of many such outbreaks over the years, especially difficult to contain.

Dr. Abdou Sebushishe from the International Medical Corps says Ebola response efforts in eastern DRC are expanding, but shortages of protective equipment, difficulties tracing contacts, and widespread misinformation are threatening efforts to contain the outbreak.