Marburg kills 280

2005-05-03 09:53

Luanda - The death toll from the outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Angola has reached 280, most of whom succumbed to the disease in the northern Uige province, the health ministry and the World Health Organisation said late on Monday.

Of the 280 dead, 269 were in Uige province and a further 208 people are under medical observation in that region after coming into contact with an infected person, a statement from the ministry and the WHO said.

There have been a total of 313 cases detected of the Marburg virus since monitoring of the outbreak, the worst ever recorded, began on October 13, it added.

The Ebola-like Marburg virus can kill a healthy person in a week, causing diarrhoea and vomiting followed by severe internal bleeding.

Its exact origin is unknown and there is no cure. The virus spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears, but can be contained with relatively simple hygenic precautions, according to experts.

Angolan health officials have stressed that corpses present a very high risk of contamination as burial rituals often involve touching the deceased to bid farewell.

Deputy Health Minister Jose Van Dunem told journalists that a health team travelled to the village of Ngombe, 150km north of the city of Uige, on Sunday and were told that a woman who had attended the funeral of a relative in Uige had spread the virus to the village.

"When she returned to Ngombe, she contaminated 12 other members of her family and they all died," said Van Dunem.

A traditional healer who treated many patients sick with Marburg in a town outside of Uige has also died from the haemorraghic fever, he added.

No new cases of the Marburg virus have been detected outside the province.

Results from a blood test on a suspected case of Marburg in nearby Malange province were negative, he said.

The Marburg virus was discovered in 1967 when German laboratory workers in a town of the same name were infected by monkeys from Uganda.

Until now the most serious outbreak of the disease had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000.

- AFP