42 People Die of Ebola Outbreak in Gabon

Home>>World

Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, February 09, 2002

42 People Die of Ebola Outbreak in Gabon

DISCUSSION

CHINESE

SEND TO FRIEND

Gabonese Minister of Health Faustin Boukoubi announced on Friday that 42 people had now died in the northeast part of the country around the town of Mekambo since the outbreak began in November last year.

The World Health Organization said in a statement on the minister's announcement that the new figure, increasing the toll in Gabon from the total of 23 announced last month, was due largely to positive tests carried out on people who had already died, not to new deaths.

Ebola, a virus named after the river where it was first identified in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (then known as Zaire), passes on through contact with body fluids and begins with aches and fever similar to flu symptoms.

Only in the final stages, when the virus eats through the victim's veins and arteries, causing massive internal and externalhemorrhaging, is it clear that Ebola has struck.

There is no known cure and no vaccine for Ebola, which bleeds 70 to 90 percent of victims to death in a matter of days.

The WHO estimates that till now Ebola has hit more than 1,500 people all over the world, of whom about 1,000 died. The biggest recent outbreak killed more than 170 people in Uganda in 2000.

Questions?Comments? Click here

14 Die of Ebola Virus Outbreak in Gabon

WHO: Outbreak in Gabon Confirmed as Ebola

Ebola Epidemic Close to End in Uganda