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* Guinea finds new infections in southeast region
* President says healthcare staff "dropped the ball"
* U.S. doctor says outbreak is not under control anywhere
* U.S. official rebuts call for disaster response teams
By Saliou Samb and Daniel Flynn
CONAKRY/DAKAR, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Guinea's government saidon Wednesday that Ebola had spread to a previously unaffectedregion of the country, as U.S. experts warned that the worstever outbreak of the deadly virus was spiralling out of controlin West Africa.
Guinea, the first country to detect the haemorrhagic feverin March, had said it was containing the outbreak butauthorities announced that nine new cases had been found in thesoutheastern prefecture of Kerouane.
The area, some 750 km (470 miles) southeast of the capitalConakry, lies close to where the virus was first detected deepin Guinea's forest region. The epidemic has since spread to fourother West African countries and killed more than 1,500 people.
"There has been a new outbreak in Kerouane but we have sentin a team to contain it," said Aboubacar Sikidi Diakité, head ofGuinea's Ebola task force. He insisted the outbreak was beingcontained.
The nine confirmed cases were in the town of Damaro in theKerouane region, with a total of 18 people under observation,the health ministry said in a statement.
The latest outbreak started after the arrival of an infectedperson from neighbouring Liberia, the ministry said. Guinea hasrecorded a total of 489 deaths and 749 Ebola cases as of Sept.1.
President Alpha Conde urged health personnel to step uptheir efforts to avoid new infections.
"Even for a simple malaria, you have to protect yourselvesbefore consulting any sick person until the end of thisepidemic," Conde said in a televised broadcast. "We had startedto succeed but you dropped the ball and here we go again."
Cases of Ebola have been reported in Liberia, Sierra Leone,Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal and Democratic Republic of Congo. Thecases in Congo, which include 31 deaths, are a separate outbreakunrelated to the West African cases, however, the World HealthOrganization has said.
OUTBREAK NOT UNDER CONTROL
In a stark analysis last week, the WHO warned that the Ebolaepidemic in West Africa could infect more than 20,000 people andspread to 10 countries. It outlined a $490 million roadmap fortackling the epidemic.
Doctor Tom Kenyon, director of the U.S. Centers for DiseaseControl's (CDC) Centre for Global Health, said on Wednesday theoutbreak was "spiralling out of control" and he warned that thewindow of opportunity for controlling it was closing.
"Guinea did show that with action, they brought it partiallyunder control. But unfortunately it is back on the increasenow," he told a conference call. "It's not under controlanywhere."
He warned that the longer the outbreak went uncontained, thegreater the possibility the virus could mutate, making it moredifficult to contain. Ebola is only transmitted in humans bycontact with the blood or bodily fluids of sick people, thoughsuspected cases of airborne infection have been reported inmonkeys in laboratories.
A senior U.S. official rebutted a call from medical charityMedecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) for wealthy nations to deployspecialised biological disaster response teams to the region.MSF on Tuesday had warned that 800 more beds for Ebola patientswere urgently needed in the Liberian capital Monrovia alone.
"I don't think at this point deploying biological incidentresponse teams is exactly what's needed," said Gayle Smith,Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director forDevelopment and Democracy on the National Security Council.
She said the U.S. government was focusing efforts on rapidlyincreasing the number of Ebola treatment centres in affectedcountries, providing protective equipment and ensuring localstaff received training.
"We will see a considerable ramp-up in the coming days andweeks. If we find it is still moving out of control we will lookat other options," Smith told a conference call.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said onTuesday a federal contract worth up to $42.3 million would helpaccelerate testing of an experimental Ebola virus treatmentbeing developed by privately held Mapp Biopharmaceutical Inc.
Human safety trials are due to begin this week on a vaccinefrom GlaxoSmithKline Plc and later this year on one fromNewLink Genetics Corp. (Writing by Bate Felix and Daniel Flynn; Editing by SonyaHepinstall)
