Ebola kills five in Sudan outbreak

FIVE people have died from the deadly Ebola virus in southern Sudan and a Russian researcher also died after sticking herself with a needle containing the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) office for southern Sudan said health authorities in Yambio county in Western Equatoria province had reported 19 patients suffering the symptoms associated with Ebola, which can kill up to 90% of its victims.

“I can confirm that there are 19 reported cases of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Yambio county as of this morning,” Abdullahi Ahmed, head of the WHO southern Sudan office, said. “It could be more than this,” he said. “We just don’t know at this point.”

The WHO said four patients were in isolation and health workers were monitoring 120 people believed to have had close contact with the victims.

The WHO has enlisted the help of other international health organisations, local churches and agencies to help support patients, create public awareness and control the

The medical aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) was building an isolation ward to quarantine patients.

Ebola, first identified in Sudan in 1976, starts with a high fever and headache and can lead to massive internal bleeding. It is passed on by infected body fluids and is one of the deadliest and most feared diseases in the world.

Two separate outbreaks in Congo Republic killed about 150 people last year.

A Russian researcher died after sticking herself with a needle containing the deadly Ebola virus, her organisation said.

The accident occurred on May 5 when Antonina Presnyakova was conducting research, said a spokeswoman for the Vektor State Research Centre of Virology in central Siberia.

She said that efforts to save Presnyakova failed and she died on May 19.