Posted on 11/18/2003 6:45:05 PM PST by Neuromancer
With more than 13 already dead in neighbouring Congo, the authorities have issued guidelines against a possible domino effect.
The health authorities in Gabon have taken measures to prevent the suspected Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Congo from spreading.
At least 13 people are known to have died in recent weeks in a suspected outbreak of Ebola in the Cuvette area of Congo-Brazzaville, near the border with Gabon.
When the last Ebola outbreak in Gabon killed 53 people a year ago, the authorities were accused of not doing enough to help those affected.
There is no cure for Ebola, which causes up to 95% of its victims to bleed to death.
More than 1,000 people have died of Ebola since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a nearby region of Congo, according to the World Health Organisation.
The health authorities in Gabon say there are no suspected cases of Ebola in the country but they are taking no chances. There have been four Ebola outbreaks in the country.
A team of experts from the Health Ministry and the Medical Research International Centre in Franceville has been sent to two areas in the north-east, near the border with Congo, which were contaminated last year.
Guidelines have also been issued to locals to prevent the suspected Ebola outbreak in Congo from spreading. Bush meat
People have been asked not to touch dead animals in the forest, or those with an unusual behaviour - when they do not try to flee when hunted, for instance. People have also been told to report any suspected case of Ebola to the health authorities.
The areas at risk are covered in forest which stretches across the Congo Basin, which also takes in the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
The authorities in Congo-Brazzaville have not yet been unable to confirm the Ebola virus is the cause of the 48 deaths reported last week.
Geneva, Switzerland 18 November 2003 14:33
The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed on Tuesday that 11 people who died recently in northwestern Congo had been infected with the Ebola virus and 105 more people are under surveillance in case they develop the highly infectious disease. "The Ebola diagnosis has been confirmed," WHO spokesperson Fadela Chaib told journalists. Congolese Health Minister Alain Moka confirmed on Saturday that an illness that had claimed the lives of 11 people in the Central African nation was caused by the deadly Ebola virus.
"Samples taken from the victims and analysed in a specialised center ... proved positive," Moka said. Chaib said: "Of the 11 cases, there are no survivors. There was a 100% fatality rate."
Two more suspected cases in the Mbomo region, 800km northwest of the capital, Brazzaville, have been ruled out, she said.
Medical teams have traced 105 people who had been in contact with the Ebola victims in the area and placed them under surveillance, she added.
"None of them shows signs of Ebola," Chaib said. Congolese authorities said people's movements throughout the relatively isolated area were being closely monitored.
In 2002, the same region was quarantined due to an Ebola outbreak that claimed the lives of more than 100 people.
There is currently no cure for the deadly fever, which is thought to be passed on through contact with infected animals in the Central African rainforest. Ten of the dead in the latest outbreak were hunters, according to the WHO.
Ebola is characterised by high fever, diarrhoea and bleeding from the nose and gums, and can induce massive internal haemorrhages. -- Sapa-AFP
I hope these animals are never sold to other countries as research animals. Ebola is ONE nasty virus.
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