Ebola May Have Killed 12 People, Spread in Congo, MSF Says

By Jason Gale
Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Ebola hemorrhagic fever, one of the most feared infectious diseases, may have killed 12 people and infected at least 26 others, in an area of the Democratic Republic of Congo where a deadly outbreak occurred 15 months ago, a medical aid organization said.
Ebola infections may be occurring in ``new pockets'' in the Mweka district of Western Kasai Province, said Medecins Sans Frontieres, or Doctors Without Borders. The current outbreak claimed its first life on Nov. 27, the Geneva-based group said in an e-mailed statement today.
``Other diseases including malaria and shigellosis, which can also have similar flu-like symptoms to Ebola in its first stages, have been confirmed in the area,'' MSF said. ``Thus, confirmation is still pending from the laboratories to determine whether these new pockets are Ebola or not.''
A laboratory in Gabon confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus in two patient samples, the World Health Organization in Geneva said in a Dec. 26 statement. In addition, laboratory tests conducted in Kinshasa, also confirmed the presence of dysentery-causing shigella.
Ebola was first recognized in 1976 after an outbreak near the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo, formerly known as Zaire. Since then, about 1,850 cases and more than 1,200 deaths have been recorded, mostly in Africa, according to WHO. African strains of the animal-borne virus usually kill 50 percent to 90 percent of those infected through lethal bleeding and organ failure.
Previous Outbreak
Congo's previous outbreak, which occurred between September and November 2007, is reported to have infected 264 people, killing 187 of them, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
MSF sent a team of medical and non-medical staff to the area of the current outbreak last week and 16 people are ``working around the clock to contain this deadly epidemic,'' MSF said today.
Two people are being cared for in an isolation facility in Kaluamba, the worst-affected village in Mweka, it said. A second, 25-bed isolation center has been established in Kampungu, in northern Mweka, in case the outbreak spreads