LIBREVILLE (Reuters) – Six people have died of a mysterious illness in a part of Gabon where the Ebola virus killed at least 66 people in 1996, the country's health minister said on Wednesday.
Troops were sent to the affected district in the north and officials appealed for calm from people terrified that the deaths could be due to Ebola.
Health Minister Faustin Boukoubi told Reuters in Libreville that the disease had struck the village of Mekambo. "There are at least six dead and the situation is getting worse," he said, without giving any more details.
Reports of the deaths, near the site of the Ebola outbreak 5 years ago, and the lack of an official explanation have set people on edge in this country of 1.2 million people on central Africa's Atlantic coast.
The most recent major outbreak of Ebola killed more than 170 people last year in Uganda. An Ebola epidemic in the town of Kikwit in the former Zaire is thought to have killed more than 250 people in 1995.
השאירו תגובה
רוצה להצטרף לדיון?תרגישו חופשי לתרום!