POINTE-NOIRE, Congo (AFP) -- Nine people have died in northwestern Congo over the last week of an illness that has the same symptoms as the deadly Ebola fever, a senior health official said Friday.

"Clinical symptoms of the victims show that it is the hemorrhagic fever Ebola," said Damaze Bozongo, director general of health in the Mbomo region, 800 kilometers (500 miles) northwest of the capital Brazzaville.

"A medical team visited the region on Thursday to take some samples which will be analyzed at the Franceville biological research centre in Gabon to give us confirmation," Bozongo said.

Results will be known next week.

According to Bozongo, the outbreak occurred in the village of Mbanza, close to Mbomo.

"There are currently 10 suspected cases in Mbanza and 35 others in Mbomo which followed," the doctor said, adding they had all had contact with the victims.

In Mbanza, five members of a family died after having eaten the meat of a wildboar found dead in a forest by hunters, Bozongo said, adding that if the presence of Ebola was confirmed, it would be the first time the incurable virus was contracted from a dead animal other than a primate.

The victims showed all the same clinical symptoms: High fever, bloody diarrhea, headaches and vomiting, he said.

In 2001 and 2002, more than 100 people died of Ebola in Mbomo and the neighboring Kelle district. The virus was transmitted to local tribal people when they handled and ate the flesh of dead gorillas.

"We have decided to put the Mbomo region in quarantine and limit the movement of populations between the Itumbi district further to the west and that of Mbomo.

"We are in talks with the transport and trade ministries to ban the movement of traders until further notice" in the Cuvette Ouest region, Bozongo said.