Mystery fever kills 23 in Guinea

A mysterious illness has killed at least 23 people in southern Guinea in six weeks, but the disease has yet to be positively identified, the health ministry announced Thursday. "A feverish sickness whose first symptoms were observed on February 9 has claimed at least 23 lives, including that of the director of the Macenta district hospital and three staff, out of a total of 36 cases," said Sakoba Keita, the doctor in charge of the ministry's preventive wing. The illness is characterised by fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, and bleeding in the cases of some patients. Medical experts have been sent to the district to try to identify the highly contagious disease, whose symptoms are similar to those caused by Lassa fever, yellow fever and Ebola, according to AFP.