Ebola-like virus claims eight lives in Congo
Brazzaville - At least eight people have died along Congo's north-western border with Gabon due to a disease caused by an Ebola-like virus, according to updated figures released by the health minister on Wednesday.
The minister, Alphonse Gando, said the mysterious, disease had claimed eight lives since May 4 among 11 cases recorded in the Itoumbi and Mbomo districts, located respectively 700km and 900km north-west of the capital of the Central African country.
Health officials were trying to find 56 people suspected of close contact with the dead and sick patients, the ministry said. Ebola is a highly contagious disease.
According to information collected by health officials, the first cases appeared among Itoumbi villagers who had gone elephant hunting in the bush.
"All the victims were great hunters. They touched a monkey they found dead in the forest and then ate it," Gando said. This is one way an Ebola outbreak can start.
Northern Gabon and Congo have been hit by several Ebola epidemics which have claimed 361 lives since 1994.
In Angola, the Ebola-like Marburg virus has so far killed 284 people, mostly in the northern province of Uige, where the world's deadliest outbreak of the rare disease started six months ago. Both viral infections spread through contact with bodily fluids.
The incubation period for the virus, or the amount of time it takes between when patients are infected and fall ill, can be as long as 21 days.
There is no cure for the virus, whose exact origin is unknown and which was first detected in 1967 when West German laboratory workers in the town of Marburg were infected by monkeys from Uganda.
The most serious outbreak of the Marburg virus until now had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000
http://www.iol.co.za/general/news/newsprint.php?art_id=qw111590136068C524&sf=
Brazzaville - At least eight people have died along Congo's north-western border with Gabon due to a disease caused by an Ebola-like virus, according to updated figures released by the health minister on Wednesday.
The minister, Alphonse Gando, said the mysterious, disease had claimed eight lives since May 4 among 11 cases recorded in the Itoumbi and Mbomo districts, located respectively 700km and 900km north-west of the capital of the Central African country.
Health officials were trying to find 56 people suspected of close contact with the dead and sick patients, the ministry said. Ebola is a highly contagious disease.
According to information collected by health officials, the first cases appeared among Itoumbi villagers who had gone elephant hunting in the bush.
"All the victims were great hunters. They touched a monkey they found dead in the forest and then ate it," Gando said. This is one way an Ebola outbreak can start.
Northern Gabon and Congo have been hit by several Ebola epidemics which have claimed 361 lives since 1994.
In Angola, the Ebola-like Marburg virus has so far killed 284 people, mostly in the northern province of Uige, where the world's deadliest outbreak of the rare disease started six months ago. Both viral infections spread through contact with bodily fluids.
The incubation period for the virus, or the amount of time it takes between when patients are infected and fall ill, can be as long as 21 days.
There is no cure for the virus, whose exact origin is unknown and which was first detected in 1967 when West German laboratory workers in the town of Marburg were infected by monkeys from Uganda.
The most serious outbreak of the Marburg virus until now had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000
http://www.iol.co.za/general/news/newsprint.php?art_id=qw111590136068C524&sf=