Angola Marburg-free?
2005-09-19 16:55
Luanda - Angola may be declared free of the Marburg virus in three weeks time after no new cases of the Ebola-like bug were reported in the past 21 days, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday. '
The death toll from the Ebola-like fever in Angola officially stands at 329 since it broke out last October, with the outbreak centred in the country's northern Uige province.
There have been no new cases reported in the past 21 days but the WHO said in a statement that "a minimum period of three weeks is needed for the epidemic to be declared over".
WHO representative Fatoumata Diallo told local authorities in Uige last week they should start preparing for the "post-epidemic stage" in the city located 300km north of Luanda, including stepping up surveillance.
There is no cure for the Marburg virus, whose exact origin is unknown and which was first detected in 1967 when West German laboratory workers in the town of Marburg were infected by monkeys from Uganda.
It spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears but can be contained with relatively simple hygienic precautions, according to experts.
The most serious outbreak of Marburg until now had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000.