BBC News Online: World: Africa

Ebola claims more lives

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO), Valery Abramov said there had been five more deaths since Monday in Gulu province, while the number of reported cases had also risen by five to 165.

Abramov said although the rate of hospital admissions had stabilised, further waves of the fever were expected.

The current outbreak of Ebola - a virulent contagious disease which causes death from severe bleeding - was first reported in Uganda in mid September.

The disease has no known cure.

Treatment

A health ministry statement said a number of patients had recovered and left the hospitals.

But the statement did not say how many patients had been healed.

The statement further said the ministry had "received reports of suspected cases from other parts of the country. These are being investigated but none of them are cases of Ebola."

Last week, medical experts were confident that they had brought the spread of the current outbreak under control.

Teams of experts from WHO and the Atlanta-based Centres for Disease Control and Prevention flew in with medicine, equipment and food to battle the virus which spreads through human contact.

According to WHO statistics, the disease has killed over 800 of its 1,200 known cases.