At least 25 people have died of the incurable Ebola virus in the latest outbreak of the haemorrhagic fever in northwestern Congo, according to a new official toll released on Wednesday.
The Congolese health ministry said most of the deaths were recorded in the town of Mbomo and the remainder in the small village of Mbanza, where the outbreak began late last month.
The ministry said in a statement that so far 47 cases have been identified of Ebola, which is characterised by high fever, diarrhoea and bleeding from the nose and gums, and can induce massive internal haemorrhages.
A further 98 people are held to be at risk and under observation in Mbomo, the main town in the Cuvette West region, after direct contact with Ebola patients or the bodies of those who have died.
Most of the patients are receiving treatment at home by health ministry teams sent to Cuvette West, which is near the border with Gabon and more than 800km from the capital Brazzaville.
Health workers seeking to contain the outbreak are urging people to renounce traditional funeral rites, which include washing and kissing the bodies of the dead.
Ebola is thought to be contracted by people who eat the flesh of infected animals in the central African rain forest.
The latest outbreak began on October 31 in Mbomo, after hunters handled the body of a gorilla and a family there ate a wild boar they had found dead in the bush.
In 2002, the Cuvette West region was quarantined due to an Ebola outbreak that claimed more than 100 lives. – Sapa-AFP