Ebola Death Toll Reaches 108; Swiss Woman Ailing

The death toll from the Ebola virus outbreak in Zaire has risen to 108, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday. A Swiss woman suspected of having the disease was identified as a news photographer sent to cover the story.

Katja Snozzi, 48, returned from Zaire last week and was hospitalized with fever, one of the early symptoms of Ebola and other tropical diseases.

Her fever was down Wednesday but a conclusive diagnosis will take several more days, according to hospital officials in Bern, the Swiss capital.

Snozzi was on assignment for the Swiss tabloid newspaper Blick, the newspaper disclosed.

The revised death toll includes an Italian nun who cared for Ebola patients in Kikwit Hospital as well as six previously undocumented deaths that date to January, the U.N. health agency said.

A total of 144 people have been infected with the disease, which causes severe hemorrhaging, vomiting, bloody diarrhea, then death, the agency said.

All the cases are concentrated in and around Kikwit, 250 miles east of the capital, Kinshasa.

Scientists researching the virus say there are indications that it may get weaker as it passes down the chain of infection, he said.

They believe that the disease exists naturally in the region, frequently hitting isolated households, then dying away. Only when the virus finds its way into a hospital with poor sanitation and hygiene does it spread “like bush fire,” he said.