MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) – Seven people believed to have the Ebola virus have died in recent days in the first deaths reported in the Liberian capital since the outbreak began, a health official said yesterday.

Deputy Health Minister Tolbert Nyenswah told The Associated Press that brings to 16 the number of people believed to have died from the virus in the West African country. Four of the deaths were confirmed by tests to be Ebola, he said.

The deaths, recorded since June 8, are worrying because no new cases had been confirmed in Liberia in about two months. Nyenswah said the new wave of cases was believed to have begun on May 30. The virus, which causes severe bleeding and high fevers, has continued to ravage neighbouring Guinea in that time and has spread to Sierra Leone.

Other officials have previously downplayed the significance of the virus jumping borders, saying that it is to be expected since people travel and trade frequently across the borders of the three countries.

Fear of the disease, which has no known cure, appears to have helped its spread.

The new deaths reported in Liberia and Sierra Leone would push the World Health Organisation’s death toll for the current outbreak to over 250.