Toll in Ebola-like virus in Angola rises to 115, kills two foreigners

Toll in Ebola-like virus in Angola rises to 115, kills two foreigners

Fri Mar 25, 4:09 PM ET Health - AFP



LUANDA, Angola (AFP) - The death toll in an outbreak of the Ebola (news - web sites)-like Marburg virus in Angola rose to 115, including many children and two Italian and Vietnamese doctors, health officials said, as the disease spread to the capital Luanda.


AFP/File Photo


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Three-quarters of the deaths were children under the age of five, according to the UN's World Health Organization (news - web sites) (WHO).


"Until today, the number of sick in hospital in Uige is 118 of whom 113 are dead in the wake of the Marburg epidemic," Carlos Alberto, a health ministry spokesman told AFP from Uige, about 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of Luanda.


In Luanda, the Vita Mvemba, the head of the provincial health department, said two others had died in the capital and five cases of the potentially fatal disease reported. The fatalities included a Vietnamese doctor, according to Alberto.

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http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050325/hl_afp/angolahealthvirus_050325210952

and lands in Florida.........

I wonder if an Ebola like virus has gotten to a capital city before?

burned itself out in a village.. The onset was so fast that people weren't living long enough to travel far enough to come in contact with too many others. Anyone remember when that was?

to the capital, a populous area. What's kept these filovirus outbreaks contained in the past is that they are quick acting (death occurs within days of infection) and they've occurred in relatively isolated areas. Now, this rather large outbreak (the only one larger was in the Congo and took over a year to kill 123 people) has moved into the population center. I just hope they're able to isolate the carriers . . . and soon.

ANGOLA VIRUS SPREADING
27.3.2005. 10:21:37



Angolan health officials have appealed for outside help to prevent the spread of a lethal virus as the death toll from the Ebola-like Marburg disease rose to 120.

The country's deputy health minister, Jose Van-Dumen, said the situation was critical after returning from a two-day field visit to the province of Uige in northern Angola.

A health ministry official said a pregnant woman died yesterday of the Marburg virus in a hospital in Cabinda in the north.

It was the first fatality outside the capital, Luanda and the province of Uige.

The nationwide death toll stands at 120 in less than six months.


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http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=108080®ion=5

Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever

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What is Marburg hemorrhagic fever?

Negative stain image of an isolate of Marburg virus, showing filamentous particles as well as the characteristic "Shepherd's Crook." Magnification approximately 100,000 times. Image courtesy of Russell Regnery, Ph.D., DVRD, NCID, CDC. Go to high-resolution version.
Marburg hemorrhagic fever is a rare, severe type of hemorrhagic fever which affects both humans and non-human primates. Caused by a genetically unique zoonotic (that is, animal-borne) RNA virus of the filovirus family, its recognition led to the creation of this virus family. The four species of Ebola virus are the only other known members of the filovirus family.

Marburg virus was first recognized in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). A total of 37 people became ill; they included laboratory workers as well as several medical personnel and family members who had cared for them. The first people infected had been exposed to African green monkeys or their tissues. In Marburg, the monkeys had been imported for research and to prepare polio vaccine.





Where do cases of Marburg hemorrhagic fever occur?

Recorded cases of the disease are rare, and have appeared in only a few locations. While the 1967 outbreak occurred in Europe, the disease agent had arrived with imported monkeys from Uganda. No other case was recorded until 1975, when a traveler most likely exposed in Zimbabwe became ill in Johannesburg, South Africa – and passed the virus to his traveling companion and a nurse. 1980 saw two other cases, one in Western Kenya not far from the Ugandan source of the monkeys implicated in the 1967 outbreak. This patient’s attending physician in Nairobi became the second case. Another human Marburg infection was recognized in 1987 when a young man who had traveled extensively in Kenya, including western Kenya, became ill and later died. In 1998, an outbreak occurred in Durba, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Cases were linked to individuals working in a gold mine. After the outbreak subsided, there were still some sporadic cases that occurred in the region.

Where is Marburg virus found?

Marburg virus is indigenous to Africa. While the geographic area to which it is native is unknown, this area appears to include at least parts of Uganda and Western Kenya, and perhaps Zimbabwe. As with Ebola virus, the actual animal host for Marburg virus also remains a mystery. Both of the men infected in 1980 in western Kenya had traveled extensively, including making a visit to a cave, in that region. The cave was investigated by placing sentinels animals inside to see if they would become infected, and by taking samples from numerous animals and arthropods trapped during the investigation. The investigation yielded no virus. The sentinel animals remained healthy and no virus isolations from the samples obtained have been reported.


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http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/dispages/marburg.htm