A quarter of people surveyed in cities at the epicentre of Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ebola outbreak have said that they do not believe the disease is real.

The survey, in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, underlines how much public mistrust authorities such as the World Health Organization and the DRC ministry of health are up against in their efforts to control the disease.

Experts have been struggling to bring the epidemic in the North Kivu region of DRC to a close since it emerged last August.

There have now been more than 1,000 cases of the disease, including more than 600 deaths.

Fear and mistrust of authorities have been a hallmark of the outbreak, which is taking place in a particularly insecure region of DRC. Attacks on health clinics and workers have been common and international aid agency Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was forced to withdraw after one of its clinics was burned to the ground.

At a press conference earlier this month the organisation's president, Joanne Liu, condemned the heavy-handed tactics used to control the outbreak with the police and army forcing people to attend treatment centres, be vaccinated or comply with strict infection control procedures regarding burials.