KINSHASA, Congo (CNN) -- An outbreak
of a disease similar to the Ebola virus has killed at least 63 people during
the past few months in the Democratic Republic of Congo, health officials
said Monday.
The affliction, which causes sudden high fevers and massive bleeding
like Ebola, surfaced in January in the northeast part of the country near
Watsa, a town close to the border of Sudan and Uganda.
All of the deaths are associated with the gold mining town of Durba,
according to a World Health Organization representative in the capital
Kinshasa. Reports of deaths elsewhere had not yet been verified, the official
said.
A total of 350 people died around the town of Kikwit in the former Zaire
in 1995 in the most serious known epidemic of Ebola, for which there is
no known cure.
The disease kills most of its victims, and death usually happens within
48 hours.
The partly state-owned Office of Kilo-Moto (Okimo) mining company operates
in Durba.
The WHO official, quoting information obtained from a radio conversation
with a nurse in Durba, said that two of the dead were Okimo staff but most
were independent miners.
Other dead linked to the Durba outbreak include two women, three infants
and the doctor who treated the first victims. He died in April in Isiro,
to the west of Watsa.
The cause of the fever outbreak was not immediately clear.
A team from the Doctors without Borders medical charity has arrived
in the region. They had protective gear and would take samples for testing
abroad, WHO officials said.
Scientists have linked Ebola outbreaks elsewhere to people who ate or
handled monkeys that had died of the disease.
All information posted on this web site is
the opinion of the author and is provided for educational purposes only.
It is not to be construed as medical advice. Only a licensed medical doctor
can legally offer medical advice in the United States. Consult the healer
of your choice for medical care and advice.