Fear stalks Angolan capital

2005-04-03 13:50

Luanda - Fear was stalking the streets of the Angolan capital Luanda on Sunday as the deadly Ebola-like Marburg virus rampaging through northern provinces moved closer to the city despite frantic efforts by authorities and international experts to contain it.

"Up until now, a 145 people died out of 154 taken ill," vice health minister Jose Van Dunem told AFP late on Saturday, adding "fortunately we have had no new cases reported in Luanda."

All fatalities and those who have been taken ill were from Uige province, the epicentre of the outbreak some 300 kilometres northeast of this seaboard capital.

The official death toll stood at 126 on Thursday, making it the worst ever recorded outbreak of the disease, for which there is no known cure.

Field teams which included experts from the World Health Organisation and Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) have been deployed to inform people and look for suspected cases around Uige, the WHO's representative in Angola said.

"We have now started to deploy teams in the problem area (in Uige), we can get a real sense of the depth and the width of the problem," said Fatoumata Diallo.

Asked how serious the problem was, Diallo said: "it's important to realise that Marburg is very new for us. It is serious since it is not well known."

"It is a threat because its symptoms are not well known. It has symptoms similar to malaria, amoebic dysentry or TB, making it difficult to identify," she said.

"In Uige the conditions are starting to change with the isolation and the treatment of the patients that the teams are looking after on the ground," said Quila Godi, of the provincial health department.

"The situation is close to improving," he told AFP by phone from Uige.

But in Luanda, where an Italian doctor, a 15-year-old boy and another man - all of whom had been to Uige - died of the disease earlier, emergency measures have been put into place.

Protective clothing

Even security guards at Luanda's main Josina Machel Hospital were decked out in protective theatre clothing, wearing face masks, surgical coats and rubber gloves.

"Be alert to the Marburg haemorrhagic fever. No unauthorised persons allowed inside," read a sign, written in Portuguese on the doors to the entrance to the hospital's emergency section.

Fear was palpable in the streets of Angola's premier port city, a day ahead of the third anniversary of the ceasefire which ended a bloody 27-year-long civil war.

Reports here said shops were running out of household bleach, which locals were adding to their water supply, while parents were reportedly keeping their children out of school for fear of them contracting Marburg.

A severe form of haemorrhagic fever akin to Ebola, the Marburg virus spreads on contact with body fluids such as blood, urine, excrement, vomit and saliva.

- AFP