A Catholic priest has been quarantined after being infected with the Ebola virus in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

World Health Organization has warned that the fight to stop the country's ninth confirmed outbreak of the deadly fever has now reached a critical point.

Congo's health ministry reported 31 confirmed Ebola cases, 13 probable cases and eight suspected cases.

A Medecins Sans Frontieres team dons protective clothing as they prepare to treat Ebola patients in an isolation ward of Mbandaka hospital

A World Health Organization worker prepares to administer a vaccination for Ebola

'We have quarantined a priest from the diocese of Mbandaka-Bikoro who tested positive' for the Ebola virus, a medical official said.

It emerged yesterday that three Ebola patients escaped from a hospital in the Congo and were taken by their familes to pray in a church with 50 people.

The patients left the hospital holding them in quarantine in Congo city of Mbandaka, a World Health Organisation spokesperson said.

Two of the patients were found dead on Tuesday, while a third was taken back to the hospital and is now under observation.

An International Red Cross Committee worker walks in front of a quarantine zone at the hospital of Wangata in Mbandaka on Tuesday

UNICEF are providing clean water for schoolchildren to wash their hands to help contain the Ebola outbreak before entering a classroom in the north-western city of Mbandaka

Katherine Overcamp of Catholic Relief Services said the priest contracted Ebola while 'taking care of someone who passed away' though it is unclear if was one of the patients who left the hospital.

She added the priest 'responding well to treatment', the Catholic News Service reported.

The first case in the latest outbreak was reported in Mbandaka, a provincial capital of 1.2 million and a transport hub located on the Congo River, last Thursday.

Meanwhile, UNICEF said Thursday it was committed to helping schools and children in the fight against the spread of the virus.

The charity's DRC representative Gianfranco Rotigliano told AFP if a student becomes infected, he or she would be promptly taken care of.

A man walks past the Church of Christ during Pentecost in Mbandaka. It has emerged a priest tending to a patient who died from Ebola has himself now become infected

Following a visit to schools in Bikoro, Rotigliano said: 'I spoke with the schoolchildren, and they know the basic rules including washing their hands regularly, and not shaking hands.'

Ebola spreads through contact with bodily fluids and is both highly infectious and extremely lethal.

In Mbandaka, several families have installed buckets of water and soap at the entrance of the house for hand-washing,.

'I asked my children to be careful not to shake hands with people and stop playing with their friends in games that would cause contact between them,' Claude, a father of several children