Kigali/Abidjan - The Democratic Republic of Congo confirmed Sunday its first two cases of Ebola.
Two out of eight people in north-western Equatoria province suffering strong fevers with haemorrhaging who were tested for Ebola were found to have the disease, Radio Okapi quoted health officials as saying.
The fever has so far killed in 13 people in Djera, 600 kilometres from the provincial capital Mbandaka. Eleven people have been placed in isolation and more than 80 are under observation, Health Minister Felix Kabange said.
The Health Ministry said the presence of Ebola was not related to the epidemic affecting West Africa, but was already the seventh such epidemic in Congo since 1976.
The ministry announced protective measures including the quarantine of Djera, creation of a mobile treatment centre and equipping ports and airports with laser thermometers.
"Health officials here in Congo have already confirmed (the presence of) the Ebola virus, and we have asked residents to be on the lookout," Nason Kabuya Ndowole, mayor of the eastern town of Goma, told dpa.
The Nigerian Medical Association said a strike by doctors working in public health institutions has been called off because of the Ebola threat. The doctors, who have been on strike for more than two months, will return to their posts on Monday.
NMA president Kayode Obembe said the doctors had decided to suspend the 65-day strike in the public interest.
The strike severely hampered efforts to curb the epidemic in Africa's most populous country.
The government had fired more than 16,000 doctors and started making arrangements for their retirement because they had decided to strike at a medically critical time.
The NMA reached a deal with the government to reinstate the sacked doctors. The doctors were demanding better salaries and working conditions.
Meanwhile, the first World Health Organization employee in West Africa has been infected with Ebola. No immediate details were available about the person.
Guinean Foreign Minister Francois Louceny Fall asked African countries to reconsider travel restrictions imposed on his country, after Senegal and Ivory Coast last week closed their borders with Guinea.
"We consider that these decisions are a bit excessive in the sense that the WHO has exhorted and encouraged airline companies to continue flying to Conakry," media reports Sunday quoted Fall as having said late Saturday.
"If the WHO had realized that the measures taken at the airport of Conakry did not meet the required standards, it would certainly have recommended that Guinea should be completely quarantined."
He said that Guinea and neighbouring governments together would take necessary measures at land borders to check crossing passengers for signs of illness.
"African countries should support all Ebola-affected nations. It is not the time to quarantine them," Fall said, pledging to discuss the issue with African Union chairwoman Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma in the coming days.
Many governments in the region have imposed border restrictions or travel bans to West African countries with high Ebola infection rates.
Senegal has closed land, air and maritime borders with Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Ivory Coast has sealed its land borders with Guinea and Liberia, while Guinea-Bissau has closed its southern and eastern land borders with Guinea.
Cameroon has closed air as well as land routes to Nigeria, while The Gambia has suspended flights from Conakry, Monrovia and Freetown. Kenya and Zambia have banned flights from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. South Africa has denied access to non-citizens from the three countries.
Many airlines are shunning Ebola-affected countries. Air France, Air Cote D'Ivoire, Nigeria's Arik Air, Togo's ASKY Airlines, British Airways and Kenya Airways have cancelled or suspended flights to Liberia. US-based Delta Airlines will cancel flights after August 31.
With Brussels Airlines cancelling a flight Saturday from Monrovia to Brussels, Royal Air Maroc (RAM) could soon be the only airline to serve the country.
WHO said said Friday that the death toll across West Africa had risen to 1,427, with a total of 2,615 suspected or confirmed cases in the region.
The fatalities include five in Nigeria and more than 500 in Guinea.
Ebola causes massive haemorrhaging and has a fatality rate of up to 90 per cent.
The disease is transmitted through contact with blood and other bodily fluids and has been particularly difficult to fight in some West African countries, where hospital and diagnostic capacities have been overwhelmed and whole countries lack staff, supplies and equipment, including personal protective equipment, according to WHO.