Angola: Marburg under control
2005-04-22 14:16
Luanda - Angola's health ministry has said that an outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus that has claimed 244 lives was now confined to the province of Uige as no new cases had been detected outside of the northern region.
"We have circumscribed the epidemic to the province of Uige," said Deputy Health Minister Jose Van Dunem late on Thursday, adding that four provinces and the capital Luanda had not recently reported any new cases.
"Kwanza Norte, Kwanza Sul, Zaire, Cabinda and Luanda have not reported any new cases of Marburg," he said.
Out of a total 266 cases of the Ebola-like bug, 244 people have died with the vast bulk of those from the northern province of Uige where 228 patients have succumbed to the virus in the worst outbreak ever of the disease.
The Marburg virus first detected in Uige in October can kill a healthy person in a week, causing diarrhoea and vomiting followed by severe internal bleeding.
The virus was discovered in 1967 when German laboratory workers in Marburg were infected by monkeys from Uganda.
Until now the most serious outbreak of the disease was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000.
"The good news is that in the province of Uige, samples from 16 cases were sent to the laboratory for analysis and 14 came back as negative," said Van Dunem.
A total of 518 people are under medical observation nationwide after having been in contact with an infected person out of whom 406 are in Uige, a dirt-poor city of shacks 300km north of Luanda.
Children represented 42% of the cases followed by adults who comprise 35%, according to health ministry figures, adding that it did not have information for 23% of patients.
"The epidemic is under control because the majority of cases continue to be recorded in the province of Uige, and in the municipality of Uige. The disease is on a decline," said Van Dunem.
"The epidemic is under control because we know how it is transmitted, how to break the chain of transmission," he said.
Van Dunem admitted that "cultural factors" like the fact that Angolans themselves prepare the body of a loved one for burials were complicating the campaign to stamp out the virus.
The Marburg virus, whose exact origin is unknown and for which there is no cure, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears, but can be contained with relatively simple hygienic precautions, according to experts.
A team of 24 Angolan and foreign health experts travelled to Uige on Thursday to reinforce the team that is reaching out to local residents to explain the threat posed by the bug.