Ebola may have been contracted from monkey meat

An outbreak of the Ebola virus in the north-eastern Ogooue-Ivindo province of Gabon last week, may have been caused by consumption of monkey meat by the victims, news reports quoted the government as saying on Wednesday. Eleven people, all members of the same family were said to have died of the disease in the province of Ogooue-Ivindo. WHO, which confirmed the Ebola outbreak and was coordinating the international response, said it had dispatched a team of scientists to the country. "WHO and its partners will work with Gabon authorities to contain the disease. It is important there is a coordinated international response to this outbreak," Mike Ryan, coordinator of Global Alert and Response at WHO headquarters, was quoted as saying on Wednesday. The Government of Gabon, which appealed for international help, placed the province under quarantine. It also warned people against eating bush meat. Research Minister Andre-Dieudonne Bere was quoted by Reuters as saying government had been told of "the discovery in the forest of the corpses of many great apes, gorillas, chimpanzees and had sent a team to carry out investigations with the aim of determining the origin and extent of this epidemic". The disease killed at least 66 people in a 1996 epidemic again in Gabon. It was first known to have struck the country in 1994, when it left more than 20 dead, Reuters reported. WHO said this was the fourth outbreak of the disease in Gabon. As of 12 December 2001, the UN agency had received reports of 10 deaths from haemorrhagic fever among a total of 12 suspected cases. It's team was heading towards Mekambo, 500 km from the capital Libreville, on Wednesday. Ebola haemorrhagic fever is one of the deadliest viral diseases known to mankind, causing death in 50-90 percent of cases. The virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood or body fluids of infected persons or primates, WHO said.