LIBREVILLE, Gabon (AP) - Four more people are believed to be infected with the deadly Ebola disease, bringing the combined case load from an outbreak in two central African countries to 31, health officials said Monday.
The four new cases were identified in Gabon's remote northeastern province of Ogooue Ivindo, where the outbreak began, Health Minister Faustin Boukoubi said.
Health officials have identified a total of 20 suspected cases in Gabon, of whom 13 have died. Eleven other people have developed symptoms in neighboring Republic of Congo, including four people who have died, according to World Health Organization figures.
An international team of medical experts from WHO has been working with health officials on both sides of the border to help contain the highly contagious virus, which has struck three times before in this same region.
Local authorities have cordoned off a 125-mile region in Republic of Congo, restricting movement to and from the area. Access is also being controlled to four border villages in Gabon.
Ebola is one of the most deadly viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50 to 90 percent of those who become infected.
The virus is passed through contact with bodily fluids - such as mucus, saliva and blood - but is not airborne.
There is no cure. But the disease usually kills its victims faster than it can spread, burning out before it can reach too far.
WHO says over 800 people have died of the disease since the virus was first identified in 1976 in western Sudan and in a nearby region of Congo. The disease last struck in Uganda, killing 224 people last year.
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