Authorities recommend Kazakh travellers returning from Africa to undergo Ebola test

"Committee of Tourism Industry under the Ministry of Industry and New Technologies of Kazakhstan reminds people to undergo tests and visit doctors after returning from Africa. Ministry urges tour operators and travel agents to inform travellers about the epidemiological situation and warn about the security measures", the press-service of the Committee informs. An outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa, with onset in early February 2014, is rapidly evolving involving Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia. The number of victims of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa has increased to 467. According to the World Health Organization, total there are 759 cases of infection, 109 of which were reported a week ago. Ebola was first identified in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan in 1976, which suffered simultaneous outbreaks of different strains miles apart. It was named after Congo's Ebola River, where it most lethal mutation - the Zaire strain - infected 318 people and killed 280. Described by virologists as a "molecular shark", ebola is believed to be hosted by the fruit bat, a delicacy in Guinea and Liberia. The current strain is at least the fifth mutation since its discovery in 1976. Diagnosis is often complicated by the fact symptoms mirror those of malaria, common in the region, including fever, vomiting and diarrhea. Victims sometimes have horrific internal and external bleeding and most die of shock or multiple organ failure, although chances of survival increase dramatically if adequate treatment is received early on. No cure exists for ebola.