the World Health Organisation (who) and Kenyan medical officials sent a team to the north eastern part of the country to investigate the spread of a mysterious disease whose symptoms match those of the Ebola virus.

Garissa region near the Somalian border, hard-hit by the recent floods, has registered 143 deaths, all from this disease. However, officials in Nairobi say that most of these deaths are unconfirmed and no medical tests have been performed on the bodies. The government doctor in the region, however, has confirmed three deaths with the patients suffering from fever, vomiting, diarrhoea and haemorrhaging from the mouth and other orifices before dying. According to officials, the symptoms are quite similar to Ebola and Marburg viruses, fatal fevers that have broken out intermittently in central Africa and northern Kenya since the mid-80s.