The recent outbreak of Ebola in western Africa is already the worst outbreak in recorded history, and now officials from the Democratic Republic of Congo have confirmed the country's first official cases.

Especially worrisome is the fact that the Congo is hundreds of miles from the other affected countries -- like Liberia and Sierra Leone -- and health officials fear that more than a dozen others in the Congo have died from Ebola but weren't tested, ABC News reported.

To date, the Ebola outbreak has killed at least 1,427 people and infected another 1,188 more, according to the World Health Organization's latest public numbers. This estimate is expected to jump when the WHO releases update figures.

The current outbreak began in Guinea in March and quickly spread to neighboring countries. Since it was discovered in 1976, around 48 percent of all deaths from Ebola happened in the last five months.

Despite the two official cases of the disease in the Congo, Health Minister Felix Kabange Numbi said the tests of the two infected people indicates that it's not the same strain as the Ebola virus that is wreaking havoc farther north, according to CNN.

"We're going to provide essential medication in all medical institutions in the area of Gera but also free health treatment for the duration of the epidemic," Numbi said. "This epidemic doesn't have any link to that which is now happening in West Africa."

A lab and quarantine station have been set up in the town of Gera to help fight the spread of the disease. An outbreak in the Congo could be devastating, as it shares a border with nine other countries.

It's possible Ebola in the Congo could already be more widespread than the two official cases. Last week, 13 people died from a mysterious disease, which the WHO called a viral hemorrhagic fever. That description can also be applied to Ebola.

Ebola is transmitted through contact with blood or other bodily fluids of infected people or dead bodies. It is not communicable through the air. The disease causes fever and headache, followed by vomiting, diarrhea and hemorrhaging.