Marburg toll tops 200
2005-04-11 21:47
Luanda - A total of 203 people have died in Angola from the Marburg virus, the worst outbreak recorded of the Ebola-like bug, said the Angolan health ministry and the World Health Organisation on Monday.
The greatest number of deaths - 184 - was recorded in the northern Uige province, the epicentre of the epidemic that was first detected in October, according to figures from health authorities released in a statement in Luanda.
A total of 221 cases of the Marburg virus have been discovered, of which 203 resulted in death, said the statement, putting the mortality rate countrywide from the outbreak at 92%.
The Marburg virus, whose exact origin is unknown, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears, but can be contained with relatively simple health precautions, according to experts.
The outbreak in Angola has overtaken an earlier epidemic of the haemorrhagic fever in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the worst and health officials here have warned that it has not yet been brought under control.
There are no drugs or vaccine to treat the Marburg virus, which can kill a healthy person in a week by diarrhoea and vomiting, followed by severe internal bleeding.
Health authorities say most of the victims of the virus are children under five.
Until now the most-serious outbreak of the disease was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000.