Angola declared Marburg free
2005-11-08 23:02
Luanda - Angola says it has stamped out an epidemic of the Marburg virus that killed 227 people in the world's worst recorded outbreak of the Ebola-like fever.
The health ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said they recorded the last Marburg case on July 27.
WHO considered outbreaks to be contained after there had been no new infections for a period lasting double the virus's maximum incubation time of 21 days.
WHO's Fatumata Diallo said: "After more than 45 days of no new cases, we can say we recommend that the epidemic be declared over."
Marburg has no cure
However, Diallo urged Angolan authorities to improve monitoring of health problems to prevent further outbreaks.
The rare disease, which has no cure, broke out in October 2004 in Uige province, northern Angola.
After the outbreak was first reported, the province had just one hospital and four doctors for a population of about 1.5m.
Angola's health care system remained weak after a two-decade civil war ended in 2002.
Foreign medical experts were sent to help control the epidemic.
Cases also were recorded in another five of the southwest African country's 18 provinces, but those infected had contracted the disease in Uige.
227 killed by Marburg
Officials previously estimated the death toll at more than 300, but health minister Sebastiao Veloso said a final report of lab tests confirmed 227 dead out of a total 252 cases.
Veloso said the dead included two doctors, 16 nurses and five traditional healers.
In some cases, entire families died from Marburg, which spreads through contact with bodily fluids and can kill rapidly.
The last and previously most-severe outbreak of Marburg took place in Congo.
In Angola, between 1998 and 2000, the disease killed 128 people.
- AP