The Ebola epidemic in Zaire appears to have spread from the quarantined city of Kikwit to at least two other locations.

Sources in the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told New York Newsday yesterday that there are indications the deadly Ebola virus, which first surfaced in Kikwit sometime in February, has spread to two small villages located closer to the Zairian capital, Kinshasa.

In one town, Musango, at least 10 hospital patients and workers reportedly became infected following the arrival of a nun from Kikwit who later died of Ebola.

The disease, which can be 90 percent fatal, is primarily spread by direct contact with contaminated blood or syringes.

Kikwit is the largest urban center for the province of Bandundu, which is inhabited by some 6 million people. Dozens of people in the Bandundu region have died, but reports of the number of deaths due to Ebola vary wildly. Yesterday Reuter reported that Kinshasa authorities were ordering a quarantine of the entire province out of concern that the virus might reach the capital, Kinshasa, where about 4 million to 6 million people live.

"If the disease penetrates to Kinshasa that will be a catastrophe," said the capital's governor, Bernadin Mungul Diaka. The city's mortuary, he added, had room for only 150 corpses.

WHO's Dr. David Heymann is in Zaire to help confirm and control the spread of Ebola, along with volunteers from the Brussels-based group Doctors Without Borders. Heymann's small team was augmented last night by three American CDC experts.

According to Veerle Eygenramm, a Doctors Without Borders spokeswoman, 20 deaths from Ebola were confirmed as of Tuesday, and 61 others have died from bloody diarrhea, which tests may show to have been caused by Ebola or the bacteria shigella. Other reports had more than 170 deaths in Kikwit.