Samples from victims of a viral hemorrhagic fever that has killed more than 50 people in Guinea have tested positive for the Ebola virus， government officials said， marking the first time an outbreak among humans has been detected in this West African nation.
Government spokesman Damantang Albert Camara said the virus was found in tests conducted at a laboratory in Lyon， France. A Health Ministry statement said 80 cases including 59 deaths had been reported， most of them in three southern prefectures near neighboring Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Previous Ebola outbreaks have been reported in Congo and Uganda， most recently in 2012. The only prior case of a human contracting the virus in West Africa came in 1994， when a scientist fell ill while responding to Ebola cases among chimpanzees in a national park in Ivory Coast， said Dr. Esther Sterk， tropical disease adviser for Doctors Without Borders. The scientist eventually recovered.
Officials have not been able to determine how Ebola was introduced， though that can result from contact with an infected animal like a bat or a monkey. Among humans the disease is transmitted through bodily fluids.
Officials have also been unable to determine the subtype of Ebola， which would give them a better idea of the fatality rate， Sterk said. The fatality rate for Ebola can range from 25 to 90 percent.（AP）