By Mouctar Bah
2 hours ago
Aid
organisations have sent dozens of workers to help one of the world's
poorest countries combat a haemorrhagic fever outbreak which has killed
at least 63 people, many of whom have been confirmed as infected by
Ebola.
"On Monday, two more deaths were reported in our area.
People are really frightened," Joseph Gbaka Sandounou, a unit manager
for Plan International in Guinea's south, was quoted as saying in a
statement. "They have seen people die in a matter of just two or three days. They are constantly worried who is going to be the next fatality."
The British-based
charity said people of Guinea's southern forests -- the epicentre of the
outbreak which began in February -- had been terrified by seeing
neighbours bleeding severely as they were struck down by the virus.
"People
have never experienced anything like this before. Rumours are rife
among communities who are trying to come up with their own
explanations," said Sandounou. 
Ebola had never spread
among humans in west Africa before February but five deaths being
investigated in Liberia, one in Sierra Leone and others still being
tested could bring the toll from the epidemic to above 70.
"We
are not at the end of this epidemic, we continue every day to record a
number of new cases or fatalities," said Guinea's chief disease
prevention officer Sakoba Keita, confirming the two new deaths."But the daily incidence is lessening. We believe the peak has passed."
The tropical virus -- described in some health publications as a "molecular shark" -- causes severe fever and muscle pain, weakness, vomiting and diarrhoea, the shutdown of organs and unstoppable bleeding in severe cases.
Scientists have examined 45 samples from victims of the epidemic, with 19 testing positive for Ebola, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement.
Other highly-contagious
tropical bugs, including Marburg and Lassa, can lead to similar symptoms
but the authorities have not announced which pathogens were been picked
up in samples where Ebola was not detected.
- Danger of panic spreading -
Sierra
Leone warned on Tuesday that a 14-year-old buried recently may have
been infected in Guinea, while the deaths of four women and a boy in
Liberia are being tested for the killer virus.
Guinea has banned
inhabitants of the south from eating bats, a common feature of the local
diet, as the creatures are considered to be the natural host of the
virus.
Transmission of Ebola
to humans can come from wild animals, direct contact with another
human's blood, faeces or sweat, as well as sexual contact or the
unprotected handling of contaminated corpses.
Doctors Without Borders,
which is known by its French initials "MSF", said the spread of the
disease was being exacerbated by people travelling to funerals in which
mourners touch the dead person's body.
No
treatment or vaccine is available, and the Zaire strain of Ebola
detected in Guinea -- first observed in the Democratic Republic of Congo
38 years ago -- has a 90 percent death rate.
Guinea
is among the planet's poorest nations despite vast untapped mineral
wealth, with a stagnating economy, youth unemployment at 60 percent and a
rank of 178th out of 187 countries on the UN's Human Development Index.
Plan,
MSF and other aid organisations are providing treatment and sanitation
facilities and relaying public health information, especially to
schools, via the media and text messages.
"We
are doing everything we can to treat the patients with dignity, whilst
at the same time protecting the community and family from possible
contamination," said MSF emergency coordinator Marie-Christine Ferir.
"We
want to avoid the danger of the population panicking and it is
important to transmit all the information necessary to understand the
disease and how people can protect themselves."
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