The World Health Organization is investigating an Ebola-like outbreak in southern Sudan.
The Associated Press, via ABCNews, reports that Cathy Roth, a member of WHO's global alert and response team, said:
A preliminary investigation by WHO's Sudan country office "suggested there was some sort of unusual illness and requested support."
[. . .]
"The situation is calm. There have been no new reports of cases for the last few days," she said.
Southern Sudan has been wracked by civil war since 1983; thousands of people are periodically displaced by fighting, and public health facilities are rare.
[. . .]
In 2000, an Ebola outbreak killed 173 in Gulu district in northern Uganda.
The Ebola virus is spread by contact with body fluids, including sweat and saliva. Outbreaks of the disease are rare, and no one knows where the virus lives when it is not infecting humans.
UPDATE: Acoording to AFP:
The "ebola-like infection" had been confirmed in 10 of 15 suspected cases and four of the 10 have died, WHO said in a statement.
Ebola itself is the most dangerous of a group of viruses that cause haemorrhagic fever, killing between 50 and 90 percent of those it infects by liquefying their organs, leading them to bleed through the skin, eyes, gums and anus.
The WHO said it was working with health authorities in Yambio County to create a crisis commitee to stem further spread of the infection, whose patients started showing symptoms on May 15.
No new cases have been reported in the past three days, WHO said.
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