KINSHASA - Authorities placed two towns in southern Democratic Republic of Congo in quarantine on Tuesday to contain an outbreak of Ebola haemorrhagic fever, a deadly disease for which there is no treatment.

Health authorities in Congo's southern province of Kasai Occidental had reported more than 160 deaths among 352 sick people in the past four months due to a mystery fever.

Five samples sent to a laboratory in Gabon and the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the presence of the Ebola virus, Health Minister Victor Makuenge Kaput said late on Monday.

"Precautions have been taken to prevent the epidemic from spreading," he told state television.

Information Minister Toussaint Tshilombo told Reuters on Tuesday the government had imposed quarantine on the areas around Mweka and Luebo to prevent the spread of the disease.

A spokesman for the World Health Organisation in Geneva said it was not clear whether all the deaths had been caused by Ebola as other diseases were also thought to be rife in area.

Some patients had responded to treatment with antibiotics, suggesting Shigella disease which is borne by contaminated food or water, Gregory Hartl said.

"We know there are five cases confirmed as Ebola. We still believe other things are going on. We have to get more people on the ground in the area to investigate."


FEVER AND MUSCLE PAIN

Ebola, which causes death in 50 to 90 percent of cases, is transmitted by contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected persons.

Symptoms begin with fever and muscle pain, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and in some cases bleeding from orifices.

The virus's natural reservoir seems to reside in African rain forests and in areas of the Western Pacific, according to the United Nations health agency.

Makuenge urged the population to take precautions, such as washing hands frequently and avoiding contact with infected patients.

No cases have been reported in the east of the country, where recent heavy fighting between government forces and rebels forced thousands of civilians to flee their homes.

Kasai is east of Kikwit, site of a major Ebola outbreak in the former Zaire in 1995 which killed 250 of 315 sufferers.

The WHO on Tuesday activated its Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network, known as GOARN, asking partner health organisations, including the Atlanta-based CDC, to send epidemiologists and other experts, Hartl said.

"The WHO is in the process now of coordinating international teams to go into the area," he said.

It is also important to warn communities that Ebola can be transmitted at burial ceremonies where mourners have direct contact with the body of the deceased, he added.

"We have to identify cases and isolate cases, separating Shigella patients from Ebola," Hartl added.