Sudan : 23 dead from mysterious haemorrhagic disease suspected to be Ebola

A mysterious haemorrhagic disease suspected to be Ebola has killed at least 23 people and infected dozens more in Sudan's under-developed south, a southern Sudanese army official said on Wednesday. The World Health Organisation says Ebola, one of the most virulent viral diseases known to mankind, was discovered in south Sudan and the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976. Some strains have a death rate of 25 to 90 percent. Kuol Diem Kuol, spokesman for the south Sudan army (SPLA) said blood samples had been sent to laboratories for testing but that doctors suspected it was Ebola. "So far from the SPLA there are 20 killed and three wives (of soldiers) also died," he said. "There is a huge number of the population affected that we don't have the (exact) number of," he added. A U.N. official in the south said they had attempted an assessment but needed more information from local government to be able to assess the situation. Kuol said symptoms included vomiting blood and bleeding from the ears and nose, adding it was very widespread in the Western Bahr al-Ghazal state. A 2004 outbreak of Ebola killed seven people in the south. Death rates in Sudan averaged around 50 percent of victims. Health officials say there is still no known cure for the disease, which is spread through bodily fluids, including blood. South Sudan, emerging from decades of civil war, has little health infrastructure and few medical staff.

The first Ebola outbreak occurred in 1976 in Zaire, now known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ebola is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs, or bodily fluids of infected people. The Zaire strain of Ebola is the most lethal with mortality rates of 90 percent or more. The Sudan strain of the Ebola virus causes death in 50 to 90 percent of all clinically ill cases.Meanwhile, U.N. agencies and Sudan's Unity government in Khartoum are expected to begin vaccinating 8.5 million children against polio later this month. 40 cases of the debilitating disease were reported this year in South Sudan, triggering concerns that the virus could spread into neighboring countries. Sudan was polio free until 2004, when an outbreak in the north spread worldwide. It was brought under control two years later, but not before it caused 1,200 new cases.

Originally posted by Kr0n0s
reply to post by Phlynx

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Yea, it may be more deadly as far as the mortality rate goes but Ebola doesnt usually spread very far because of the way it is spread but more importantly because of the short amount of time between infection and death.

Originally posted by Phlynx
This proves there are bigger threats then the swine flu.

Situation Update No. 8
On 23.10.2009 at 03:33 GMT+2

Health officials said they had found no evidence to back up reports of a suspected outbreak of the deadly Ebola haemorrhagic fever in south Sudan, suggesting locals may have made it up to draw doctors to the underdeveloped area. South Sudan's army this month - October 2009 - said 20 soldiers and 3 of their wives had died of a haemorrhagic illness feared to be - an ebolavirus infection - in barracks in the remote Western Bahr al-Ghazal region, news that sparked widespread concern in the territory. The south's health ministry said on Wednesday - 21 Oct 2009 - it had since visited the area and found no signs of the disease. "Our team went there and they did not find any cases ... They did not find any deaths as was reported ... They concluded there was no Ebola haemorrhagic fever outbreak," said Atem Nathan the ministry official charged with investigating the outbreak. Nathan said that the reports were likely a cry for help for more medical care by people living in the war-ravaged area. "It is the lack of services that turns into these rumours," he said, adding that during the Sudan's long north-south civil war, communities sometimes made up outbreaks to attract humanitarian assistance to their areas. South Sudan's army said the director of its medical corps had also visited the barracks and reached the same conclusion. "It seems that the report by both the local county administration and the SPLA (the southern Sudan People's Liberation Army) command about the deaths of the 23 soldiers - that is, 20 soldiers and 3 of their wives - was something to draw attention to the acute lack of medicine in Raja County," said SPLA spokesman Kuol Diem Kuol. "They have succeeded. Now medicines are being taken there." South Sudan ended a 2-decade civil war with the north in 2005, but still has little health infrastructure and few medical staff.