Ebola Takes Another Life, Infects Four More

The Ebola virus has claimed another victim in Gabon, raising the death toll to 11 in the West African nation’s second outbreak of the disease, the World Health Organization said Thursday.

In addition, the WHO said four more people have become infected with the virus in the past two days - three of them young children ages 5, 3, and 7 months. All of them have been in close contact with other Ebola patients.

The virus is highly contagious, spreading through bodily fluids such as blood and saliva, and even through coughs and sneezes. It kills 80 percent of those infected. Symptoms include fever, vomiting, diarrhea and severe internal hemorrhaging.

In February, an outbreak of the disease in Gabon killed 21 people.

The recent outbreak started in July, and so far, 11 men and seven females have contracted disease, said WHO, the U.N. health agency. It was not immediately clear, however, whether those figures included the four people who recently became ill.