Ebola Blamed For Deadly Fever Outbreak In Guinea

Scores of cases have been recorded since the outbreak began early February.

There is no known cure or vaccine for the highly contagious Ebola virus.

It is spread by close personal contact with people who are infected and kills between 25% and 90% of victims.

Symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhea and vomiting.

Analysts suggest it has never been recorded in Guinea before.

Ebola was first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976.

Recent years have seen outbreaks in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo.

"We got the first results from Lyon on Friday which informed us of the presence of the Ebola virus as the cause of this outbreak," Guinean health ministry official Sakoba Keita said.

"The Ebola fever epidemic raging in southern Guinea since 9 February has left at least 59 dead out of 80 cases identified by our services on the ground."

"We are overwhelmed in the field, we are fighting against this epidemic with all the means we have at our disposal with the help of our partners but it is difficult."

Medical aid charity Medicines sans Frontiers said on Saturday it would strengthen its team in Guinea and fly some 33 tones of drugs and isolation equipment in from Belgium and France.

By Angel Mboya

Source: BBC News