Mystery fever death toll rises
2005-03-22 13:17
Luanda - An outbreak of an unidentified haemorrhagic fever has claimed the lives of 93 people in northern Angola, Deputy Health Minister Jose Van Dunem said late on Monday.
Of the 101 cases reported in the Uige provincial hospital in northern Angola, 93 people have died and two have left the hospital without being properly discharged, said Van Dunem at a news conference.
"We are engaged in an effort with the community to find the two patients who fled the hospital and to detect new cases," he said.
The results of blood samples sent to Senegal showed that the mysterious outbreak was not due to yellow fever, dengue fever, the West Nile virus, the Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever or rift valley fever, said Moises Francisco, a member of the Angolan technical team monitoring the outbreak in Uige.
Angolan health officials have asked the Centres for Disease Control in the United States to conduct tests to determine whether the fever is caused by the Ebola virus.
"We have the results (from Senegal) and they are negative," said Van Dunem. "We are now awaiting the results of the Ebola tests that we have asked from the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta."
Angolan health officials said that eight cases of the haemorrhagic fever were detected in municipalities near the city of Uige.
The officials last week gave the death toll at 87 from November to mid-March.
Health officials last week said they did not believe that they were dealing with an outbreak of Ebola that kills by inducing massive internal haemorrhages.
Most of those affected by the disease are children aged under five, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).
The WHO has expressed concern over the fact that children were the main victims, saying in general haemorrhagic fevers like the one caused by the Ebola virus hit all age groups without distinction.
"We're perplexed. We don't know if it's Ebola fever or something else," said Fadela Chaib in Geneva.
Portugal on Monday advised its citizens against travelling to northern Angola due to the outbreak. - AFP
- SAPA