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GENEVA
(Reuters) - Sixty-eight out of a reported 191 victims of
the deadly Ebola fever in northern Uganda have now died,
the World Health Organization said on Friday.
They
include a nurse who died after being infected by contact
with patients, a spokesman for the United Nations (news
- web sites)' health agency said.
On Monday
the toll stood at 55. WHO says the outbreak is likely to
last another two to three months and that it expects the
number of cases to rise. There is no cure for the hemorrhagic
fever, which is spread by human contact and brings massive
internal bleeding. WHO says the incubation period is between
two and 21 days.
The
exact origin of the virus and how and why it flares up are
unknown. Symptoms include sudden onset of fever, weakness,
headache, muscle ache, abdominal pain and sore throat, followed
by vomiting, diarrhea and internal and external bleeding.
Before
the outbreak in Uganda's Gulu province, WHO said ebola had
claimed 793 lives in nearly 1,100 documented cases. It was
first discovered in 1976 in the Democratic Republic of the
Congo, where an epidemic killed more than 270 people.
More
recently, ebola killed 245 people in the Congolese town
of Kikwit in 1995.
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