MONROVIA, April 26 (Xinhua) -- Nine people have so far been confirmed dead following the spread of a strange illness that hit Liberia's southeastern Sinoe county, health officials in the country said Wednesday.
Francis Kateh, Liberia's chief medical officer, who announced the increase in death toll said eight others suspected to have contracted the strange disease have been hospitalized in the county's capital of Greenville.
Health Ministry spokesman Sorbor George told reporters the yet-to-be identified illness hit the county on Tuesday. Since then, there has been an increase in the number of victims.
On Tuesday, local media reported that all the victims suffered severe stomach pain before succumbing to death, adding that health authorities in the county had already isolated all those who had contact with the dead.
Also on Tuesday, an emergency meeting of health officials was called to discuss "the strange deaths."
George said blood specimens from the deceased had been sent to a medical laboratory to ascertain the cause of their death and identify the disease itself.
There have been speculations across Liberia that the symptoms of the illness were similar to that of Ebola, which ravaged the west African country in 2014.
Kateh, who was at the forefront of the fight against Ebola, said the initial tests performed on the blood specimens of the deceased had disproved that the victims died from the Ebola virus, even though they showed similar symptoms like vomiting and stomach pain, among others.
According to him, four residents of the Liberian capital Monrovia who went to Greenville to bury their dead relatives were suspected of having contracted the disease and are being traced by health personnel.
The health official admonished Liberians to continue the preventive measures instituted by the health ministry to contain the spread of Ebola.
He also advised citizens across the country to wash their hands frequently, report sicknesses of relatives in communities and the bodies of dead relatives to health authorities for testing to ascertain the cause of death before burying them.
The Liberian government said it will soon publish its intervention plans.
About 4,500 people died in Liberia alone in 2014 when the Ebola outbreak ravaged some countries in west Africa.
