Although there is optimism that the Ebola outbreak in central Africa can still be quickly contained, the fight is already becoming more complex, health experts said this week.

Novel tactics — a new vaccine already in use, and new antibody or drug treatments that may be deployed — raise hopes that the outbreak will be quickly extinguished. Nonetheless, they may sow confusion because the treatments are unfamiliar to a wary and terrified population.

There are now 58 confirmed or suspected victims in the Democratic Republic of Congo, of whom 27 have died, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday. Three cases were in health care workers.

In one alarming development, three patients fled from an Ebola ward overseen by Doctors Without Borders in a hospital in Mbandaka, a city of more than one million about 60 miles from the outbreak’s rural epicenter.