Strange disease in Liberia infects 28 people

A total of 28 people have been infected with a strange disease ravaging Liberia's southeastern county of Sinoe, Liberian health authorities have confirmed.

Liberia's chief medical officer Francis Kateh said Thursday that seven additional cases of the strange disease were reported in the Sinoe County capital of Greenville, bring the total to 28. At least 13 people have died.

Laboratory tests have proved the disease to be neither Ebola nor Lassa fever.

Locals said victims suffered severe stomach pain before death. Most of the deaths occurred in Greenville.

Kateh said some of the sick persons were now responding to treatment.

Two pathologists are expected to arrive in Liberia on Friday to conduct autopsies to find clues of the disease, he added.

The first case of the unknown disease was reported in Greenville last week and now it has been found in Monrovia. An investigation was under way to ascertain the origin of the disease.

The Liberian Health Ministry said it had launched a massive search for all 60 people who attended a funeral in Greenville and was ready to quarantine them. It is suspected that the disease originated from that funeral.

The government has already put in place the necessary mechanisms and measures to contain any outbreak of infectious diseases, a Health Ministry spokesman has said.

About 4,500 people died in Liberia alone in 2014 when the Ebola outbreak ravaged some countries in West Africa. Endi