WHO confirms Ebola outbreak

The ebola virus

GENEVA, Switzerland -- The World Health Organisation says there had been at least one case of the deadly Ebola virus in Gabon.

The confirmation follows reports that 10 people had died of a mystery illness in the Central African country.

A WHO official said in the Gabon capital Libreville on Friday that 10 people, including a nurse, had died in Gabon from a disease it was feared could be Ebola.

The WHO told Reuters from its Geneva headquarters on Saturday at least one case of Ebola had been reported from Gabon.

At least 66 people died from Ebola in the same area of Gabon in 1996.

Another WHO official said on Friday 28 people had died of haemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo and doctors feared that outbreak might also be Ebola.

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

The disease was discovered in 1976 near the Ebola River in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The WHO said in a weekly bulletin in Geneva on Friday that it had received reports of cases of suspected viral haemorrhagic fever -- which includes Ebola -- in Ogooue Iveindo province in the northeastern part of Gabon and had sent a team to investigate.

The official in Libreville said on Friday blood samples had been taken from victims in Gabon and sent to South Africa for tests.

The most recent major outbreak of Ebola killed more than 170 people in Uganda last year.

An epidemic in the town of Kikwit in the former Zaire is thought to have killed more than 250 people in 1995.