NAIROBI, Kenya (IPS)�Eastern African governments are on alert following a recent outbreak in neighboring Uganda of the virulent hemorrhagic fever known as Ebola, which has killed 39 people and left dozens more infected.

Kenya, Uganda�s eastern neighbor, has sent medical teams of health ministry and World Health Organization (WHO) officials to the borders to screen travelers for Ebola-related symptoms.

The emergency task forces will require anyone wishing to enter Kenya to fill out forms indicating their recent health status. Those with symptoms related to the fever, such as headaches, fever or vomiting, will be quarantined in local hospitals, according to Sam Ongeri, Kenya�s health minister.

Officials have also been rushed to smaller, but vulnerable, border crossings with Uganda, Tanzania and Sudan.

Ebola is a highly contagious virus that eventually causes its victims to "bleed out" through their eyes, ears, nose and other orifices. It has a 90 percent fatality rate. There is no known cure, and doctors are not sure why some people survive.

Ebola was first reported in 1976 in the former Zaire, later emerging in the Kikwit region of eastern Congo in 1996, where it killed up to 300 people.

Since then, Ebola outbreaks have also been reported in the Ivory Coast, Gabon and lately Uganda. It is not known how the virus originated, or where it sits dormant between outbreaks.

Symptoms include diarrhea, pain in the gastrointestinal tract, vomiting, and within 14 days of infection, uncontrolled internal bleeding. Ebola is similar to Rift Valley fever, a disease transmitted by livestock, which in 1997 struck northeastern Kenya and killed about 200 people.

The fever recently spread to Yemen and Saudi Arabia, prompting a widespread ban on East African and Horn of Africa livestock exports to the Middle East.

Experts, however, say the Ebola virus cannot sustain itself over a long period of time�like the HIV virus, for example�because it incapacitates people so quickly that they are unable to spread the virus to others.

Reports indicate that some seven patients, said to have recovered from the disease, are still under quarantine at the Gulu District Hospital.

Tanzanian officials say they will monitor the situation further before taking any action.

Initially, health officials had attributed the outbreak to Ugandan soldiers recently returned from Eastern Congo, who were helping rebels fighting to topple DRC President Laurent Kabila.

This theory fell apart when none of the soldiers or their Congolese "wives" succumbed to the virus.

An official at the Ugandan high commission in Nairobi said President Yoweri Museveni�s government has set up a limited quarantine in the areas affected, and also is closely monitoring its western border with Congo.

Blood samples had earlier been taken to South Africa and the United States for analysis, which confirmed that the outbreak was indeed Ebola. The WHO also has flown in experts to investigate the deadly fever, and help contain its spread.