Death toll from mystery fever rises to 77

The number of people killed by a mystery illness in Angola's northern Uige province has risen to 77, health officials said on Friday. The cause of the outbreak, characterised by fever, coughing and vomiting, sometimes with blood, is still unknown. But the government is so concerned it has sent blood samples to the Centres for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, the officials said. The health ministry is advising people not to enter or leave Uige, while diplomatic sources said the airport had been closed. Most of the dead are children under five, but two medical personnel working at the hospital in the provincial capital, also known as Uige, have also fallen victim to the disease. The Ministry of Health, supported by the World Health Organisation, has sent a team of experts to the province to try and determine the cause of the disease, and staff at the hospital are isolating cases and treating patients according to WHO recommendations. Earlier rumours that the deaths were due to an outbreak of the Ebola virus appeared unfounded, given that most of the victims were children, officials said.