CONAKRY (Reuters) – Guinea has received confirmation that a mysterious disease that has killed up to 59 people in the West African country, and may have spread to neighbouring Sierra Leone, is the haemorrhagic fever Ebola, the government said yesterday.
Cases of the disease – among the most virulent pathogens known to infect humans, with a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent – have been registered in three southeastern towns and in the capital Conakry since Feb 9. It has never before been recorded in Guinea.
“It is indeed Ebola fever. A laboratory in Lyon (France) confirmed the information,” Damantang Albert Camara told Reuters.
Six of the 12 samples sent for analysis tested positive for Ebola, Dr. Sakoba Keita, who heads the epidemics prevention division at Guinea’s health ministry, told Reuters.
He added that health officials had registered 80 suspected cases of the disease, including 59 deaths.
