LA PAZ, Aug. 12 -- Bolivia Tuesday announced it was taking measures to prevent an Ebola outbreak within its borders, by issuing a health emergency to step up monitoring and detection of any suspected cases.

Roberto Torrez, head of epidemiology at the regional health service (Sedes) of eastern Santa Cruz department, told reporters at a press conference in the regional capital of the same name, that the department's health workers have been mobilized in case of an outbreak.

"While (the virus) has not appeared in Bolivia, just as our neighbor Brazil is doing, Bolivia has launched a system to strengthen monitoring to detect any suspected cases," said Torrez.

"We are ready and mobilized by issuing this emergency," he said, adding, "a health warning was issued throughout the country."

"We want to reach the people to avoid any alarm, to tell them emphatically that the fatal disease has not appeared in national territory, that we are working to prevent any outbreak," Torrez said.

Control measures have been placed at border crossings and ports of entry, including airports in all departments, and health workers will receive training and be updated on how to handle patients infected with the virus, he said.

"The virus produces the so-called Ebola hemorrhagic fever, a highly viral disease characterized by a sudden fever, severe weakness and muscular, head and throat pain accompanied by vomiting, diarrhea, skin rashes, renal and hepatic malfunction and in some cases internal and external hemorrhaging," explained Torrez.

No Ebola cases have been reported in Latin America, but the World Health Organization (WHO) on Friday warned the disease was now a "Public Health Emergency of International Concern," and called for "a coordinated international response ... to stop and reverse the international spread of Ebola."

The current outbreak began in Guinea in December 2013 and spread to Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, where a total of 1, 848 cases have been reported, including 1,013 deaths, according to the latest WHO update on the ongoing Ebola crisis.