Medics winning Marburg fight
2005-06-07 16:12
Geneva - The World Health Organisation said on Tuesday that the world's worst outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Angola might be under control in the northern city of Uige after claiming 346 lives.
Fadela Chaib of WHO said about 411 cases, 346 of them fatal, had occurred in Angola since October with the last case recorded about one week ago in Uige after renewed checks of earlier cases of illness.
Chaib said: "WHO experts and their partners believe the epidemic in the municipality of Uige might be under control.
"The question is what is happening outside the municipality, where access is difficult and security is a problem."
According to the United Nations health agency, an epidemic could only be declared if no cases had occurred for a period of time equivalent to at least twice the incubation period for the disease.
Uige 'epicentre of outbreak'
In the case of Marburg, that total period was 42 days.
Uige had been regarded as the epicentre of the outbreak, accounting for 408 of all cases in the country.
Chaib said health workers were examining if they could use helicopters to explore the outlying province.
There was no cure for the virus, as its exact origin was unknown and which was first detected in 1967 when monkeys from Uganda infected West German laboratory workers in the town of Marburg.
According to experts, it increased through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears, but could be contained with relatively simple hygienic precautions.
The most serious outbreak of Marburg until now had been in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000.