More Cases Of Ebola Suspected Who Team Finds Three Sick Men In Liberian Border Village

The lethal Ebola virus has been found in one Liberian refugee and may be present in four others who lived with the victim, U.N. officials said Monday.

The report reinforced fears of a possible Ebola outbreak in Liberia, where six years of civil war have destroyed health care facilities and tens of thousands of refugees live in substandard conditions.

Two weeks ago, 25-year-old Jaster Chea crossed from Liberia, on the western coast of Africa, into neighboring Ivory Coast with his wife to seek medical treatment.

On Friday, he was diagnosed with Ebola, which killed 244 people in the central African nation of Zaire earlier this year.

At Chea’s home in the Liberian border village of Plibo, a five-member team from the World Health Organization found three men sick with fever and extreme fatigue, possible early signs of Ebola infection, WHO said Monday from its Geneva headquarters. The men have been isolated in their home, it added.

Another woman who lived in the house has been hospitalized in the Ivory Coast with symptoms similar to Ebola, the U.N. health agency said.

Blood samples from the suspected cases have been sent to the Abidjan branch of the Paris-based Pasteur Institute to be tested for the virus.

The whereabouts of Chea’s wife and another man believed to be sick are being traced. Neither was at home when the U.N. team visited Liberia on Sunday.

Dr. Deo Barakanfitiye, director of WHO’s disease control unit in Brazzaville, Congo, said another six people in Liberia had come in contact with the infected man.

The five-member team will return to the area Tuesday and attempt to locate them, he said.

Ebola was first identified in 1976 when it ravaged a village in Zaire, and it has been seen only a few times since. Scientists do not know where the virus comes from, and there is no known cure.

The fatality rate is about 80 percent. Symptoms include diarrhea, fevers, and vomiting, making it difficult to distinguish from other diseases common in Africa.

Liberia’s civil war officially ended Sept. 1, but the situation remains tense in the countryside, where rebels have yet to be disarmed.

For that reason, Ivorian officials had to negotiate with rebel leaders before doctors could safely cross into Liberia, said Col. Mombo Dosso, police chief for the Tabou region in Ivory Coast.

Chea, the Ebola victim, was recovering in Ivory Coast and medical workers who came into contact with him have shown no signs of the disease, Dosso said.

After Ebola was diagnosed, Ivorian officials suspended border traffic, but it is almost impossible to seal the border because the porous frontier winds for 300 miles from the Atlantic Ocean north through thick bush.

It is doubtful, however, that a serious Ebola outbreak could occur in Ivory Coast, since its health facilities are far superior to those in Zaire.