Italy medical team to Sierra Leone as Ebola deaths rise

As part of EU-funded lab to fight deadly West Africa epidemic

(ANSA) - Rome, August 13 - The international community, including Italy, took measures to help contain the spread of the deadly Ebola virus that has so far killed 1,069 people and infected 1,975 in Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the World Health Organization (WHO) said Wednesday.

Rome's Spallanzani hospital will be sending a mobile laboratory unit to Sierra Leone on Thursday. The unit will have state-of-the-art technology and will be staffed by doctors form Italy and other European Union countries, hospital sources said. The EU-funded lab is the second to be set up in West Africa. The first such unit was sent to Guinea in March, and included a team of doctors from Spallanzani.