WHO has virologically confirmed Ebola in a case reported in the southwestern district of Mbarara, at the opposite end of the country where the first 261 cases have been detected. The sample was tested by the laboratory established in Gulu by the WHO Collaborating Centre at the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Following a request from Uganda's Health Ministry for Gulu-based specialists in Ebola management to look into the report, a WHO-led team, accompanied by CDC and Médecins sans frontières in Kampala, is on its way to the area, the agency said.

Meanwhile, the death toll from the virus has risen to 81, according to figures released today by the Ugandan Ministry of Health.

WHO first confirmed the outbreak of Ebola in Uganda on 16 October and has been coordinating the international response to the crisis. The virus, which is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or semen of infected persons, is one of the most severe viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50-90 per cent of cases. Since the virus was discovered in 1976 in the Sudan and the then Zaire, nearly 1,100 cases with over 800 deaths have been documented.