WHO confirms Ebola outbreak

An Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreak was confirmed in Ogooue Ivindo Province of Gabon, following investigations into the death of 10 out of 12 patients reported to be suffering from 'a mysterious fever' last week, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday. "Laboratory testing carried out at the Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville (CIRMF), in Gabon confirmed Ebola virus in one sample from a recovering case in Ogooue Ivindo Province," WHO said in a statement. Further investigations were going on into another suspected outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The UN agency said the Gabon Ministry of Health had established a national task force in response to the Ebola outbreak. An international team from WHO and its partners in the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network, WHO said, had arrived in the country to assist and coordinate international response. It would also implement disease control measures, find cases, trace and monitor contacts, and supply protective equipment. Investigations into a suspected viral haemorrhagic fever outbreak in Gabon and DRC started last Wednesday. WHO had said on Tuesday, it received reports that seven people, suspected to have contracted the fever, had died in Ogooue Ivindo Province. A team from the Gabon Ministry of Health and CIRMF, supported by military medical personnel and the WHO sub-regional Epidemic Response Team were dispatched to the province. Another probe team had been sent to Kasai Occidental province in DRC. The two regions have in the past been affected by Ebola. In 1996, some 66 people were killed in Ogooue Ivindo Province. A year earlier, 265 people died in Kikwit, Kasai Occidental province of DRC. According to WHO, the Ebola haemorrhagic fever which was first identified in 1976 near the Ebola River of DRC, is one of the most deadly diseases known to humankind. Between 50-90 per cent of those infected die. Ebola has no known cure and is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, and secretions of infected persons. The disease is often characterised by sudden onset of fever, weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat, 2 to 21 days after infection; followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, skin rash, kidney and liver failure, and both internal and external bleeding. The latest outbreak occurred in northern Uganda last year where 170 people died.