Angola winning Marburg battle
2005-04-06 18:39
Luanda - Authorities and foreign medical teams are bringing an outbreak of a deadly Ebola-like virus under control, Health Minister Sebastiao Veloso said on Wednesday. The virus has killed 156 people.
Veloso said measures to contain the rare Marburg virus, which first appeared in the northern province of Uige in October, were proving effective.
"The epidemic's spread has been checked. No more cases are emerging outside Uige," Veloso told reporters.
Several deaths attributed to the virus recently have been reported in four other provinces but the victims all had been in Uige.
Like Ebola, which also has hit Africa, Marburg is a haemorrhagic fever. It spreads through contact with bodily fluids and can kill rapidly. There is no vaccine.
The World Health Organisation, the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and Doctors Without Borders have deployed teams in Uige to combat the virus.
Veloso credited mobile surveillance units that check for unreported cases, special medical equipment and a public awareness campaign to improve cleanliness and avoid contagion in Uige.
The worst previously recorded outbreak of the virus killed 123 people in neighbouring Congo between 1998 and 2000, the last known outbreak of Marburg.
- AP