Ebola suspects being tracked

Government officials and international personnel continued tracking on Tuesday suspected Ebola cases in Ogooue Ivindo province of Gabon. World Health Organization said suspected cases from last week's outbreak in the West African country rose to 15 on Monday, of whom 12 died with two confirmed cases. "The team is at the outbreak site, and actively tracing suspected cases and contacts. It is also establishing an isolation unit and carrying out education in the local communities aimed at preventing exposure," WHO said on Monday. To minimise possible spread to neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), border control between the two countries was tightened. "Congolese authorities tightened health control measures at the border with Gabon to prevent cross-border infections," PANA quoted a health official as saying in Gabon's capital, Libreville, on Tuesday. A woman from DRC, suspected to have been infected with Ebola arrived in Mbomo district of DRC from Mekambo in eastern Gabon, over the weekend, compelling local authorities to discourage people of Mbomo from visiting Gabon. A preventive sanitary belt had been enforced around a 200-km zone between Mbomo in Cuvette-West, Ouesso and Sangha - where a surveillance team was conducting investigations. Mbomo and Sangha lie within a national park, PANA said. Last week, WHO said the outbreak was the fourth in Gabon since 1994, when the disease killed more than 20. At least 66 people again died in a 1996 epidemic. Ebola is one of the deadliest viral diseases, 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.