Published Date: 2003-02-08 23:50:00
Subject: PRO/AH/EDR> Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Congo Rep. (03): susp
Archive Number: 20030208.0332

EBOLA HEMORRHAGIC FEVER - CONGO REPUBLIC (03): SUSPECTED
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Date: 7 Feb 2003
From: ProMED-mail <promed@promedmail.org>
Source: NY Times / Reuters 7 Feb 2003 2:44 PM EST [edited]
<http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-health-congo-ebola.html>

Six people killed by Ebola in Congo - official
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Six people have died in the past week from Ebola virus infection in the
northwest of Congo Republic, the second outbreak there in 2 years, a senior
health official said on Friday. Damase Bozongo, director general of health,
told Reuters that the victims died in Kelle, 440 miles north of the capital
Brazzaville, near the border with Gabon which was also hit by an Ebola
outbreak last year.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said earlier on Friday in Geneva that
it had sent a team to the central African country to investigate a
suspected outbreak of the virus. The United Nations health agency said the
team left Brazzaville on Thursday to investigate 16 deaths in the Mbomo and
Kelle districts which could have been caused by the virus. Kelle and Mbomo
are about 40 miles from the border with neighboring Gabon. Ebola is spread
by infected body fluids and kills anywhere from 50 to 90 per cent of its
victims through massive internal bleeding, depending on the strain.
Bozongo said the 6 deaths in Kelle were caused by Ebola. "The clinical
signs present are without doubt those of the Ebola virus," he said. There
is no known cure for Ebola, a hemorrhagic fever which left at least 73
people dead in Congo and Gabon in an outbreak from October 2001 to February
2002.
"The outbreak last year was sparked after people ate the meat of infected
primates," Fadela Chaib, the WHO spokeswoman, told a news briefing in
Switzerland on Friday. "Perhaps the same has occurred this year because in
December WHO received reports of dead primates in this region."
In some parts of Africa, villagers exist largely on wild "bush meat," and
authorities have urged people to avoid eating monkeys found dead in the
forests. Bush meat is also prized in some cities as an expensive delicacy.
The disease was named after a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo,
where it was discovered in 1976. The worst outbreak was in that country in
1995 when over 250 people died.
--
ProMED-mail
<promed@promedmail.org>
[Laboratory confirmation is awaited, but it is interesting that the
director general of health of the Congo Republic is on record as clinically
confirming the disease, suggesting that there is a high probability that
this is another Ebola hemorrhagic fever outbreak in the same region of the
country. We await final laboratory confirmation as well as more
epidemiological information as it becomes available from the field. - Mod.MPP]

See Also

Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Congo Rep: (02) suspected 20030208.0331
Ebola hemorrhagic fever, apes - Congo Rep. (02) 20030208.0330
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Congo Rep: suspected 20030205.0315
Ebola hemorrhagic fever, apes - Congo Rep. 20030124.0207
2002
---
Unexplained deaths, wildlife - Congo Rep: RFI 20021207.5996
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Congo Rep: suspected (02) 20020613.4482
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Congo Rep: confirmed 20020613.4492
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon/Congo Rep (26) 20020510.4151
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon: gorilla-to-human? 20020409.3915
Ebola hemorrhagic fever, new diagnostic test 20020228.3647
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon/Congo Rep 20020102.3149
2001
---
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon/Congo Rep (04) 20011231.3142
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon/Congo Rep 20011225.3109
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon: dead wildlife (03) 20011220.3079
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Congo Rep. 20011220.3075
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon (07) 20011220.3074
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon: dead wildlife 20011216.3041
Ebola hemorrhagic fever - Gabon: WHO confirms 20011211.3002
Viral hemorrhagic fever, suspected - Gabon 20011205.2950
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