The World Health Organization (WHO) believes a new strain of the Ebola virus is responsible for four deaths in Yambio, southern Sudan.

According to WHO, an additional 15 people are thought to be infected with the virus. The WHO has restricted public movement, public gatherings, and person-to-person contact, such as shaking hands. To prevent the spread of the virus, staff of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) in southern Sudan are taking precautionary measures. Teacher trainings being implemented as part of ADRA's Primary Education South Sudan II project have been halted in Yambio.

Contrary to earlier reports that a new strain of Ebola may be responsible for the outbreak, WHO spokesman Dick Thompson said in Geneva that one of the four known strains was determined to be behind the infections. "Initial lab tests were very confusing so there was a possibility that it was a new strain of Ebola," he said.

Ebola, which kills most of its victims, is spread through bodily fluids, including saliva and sweat. Thompson said researchers did not yet know the source of the new outbreak or the extent of it.
The cases have been restricted to Yambio payam, an administrative unit in Yambio County, which borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Only one new case of the disease had been found since May 20, according to WHO regional director Abdullahi Ahmed. Another 118 people were being monitored after coming into contact with Ebola patients.

The first recognized Ebola epidemic emerged in southern Sudan and D.R.C. in 1976, killing 397 people. An outbreak in northern Uganda, which borders southern Sudan, killed 173 in 2000, and five outbreaks have occurred in the Republic of the Congo and neighbouring Gabon since 2001, killing more than 220.

While there is no treatment for Ebola, isolating patients and following up on people who have been in contact with infected persons can contain the spread, Ahmed said.