April 11, 2005
By CASIMIRO SIONA, Associated Press Writer
Yahoo News
Photo: A woman brings her child to the David Bernardino Hospital in Luanda for testing following an outbreak of the deadly Ebola-like Marburg disease. Epidemiologists in the northern Angolan town of Uige are working overtime to trace new cases of the deadly Marburg virus, which has claimed 184 lives and sparked panic in the war-devastated southern African nation. (AFP/File/Florence Panoussian)
LISBON, Portugal - The Angolan health ministry may shut down the isolation ward of an Angolan hospital treating victims of the Ebola-like Marburg virus to stem the spread of the disease, an Angolan health official said Monday.
A team of World Health Organization experts was visiting the ward in Angola's Uige province to evaluate the situation and a decision could be reached in 48 to 72 hours, health official Filomena Wilson said.
Wilson said the decision would take into account the needs of patients who go to the hospital for other illnesses.
The medical charity Doctors Without Borders and the WHO have advised that the hospital be shut down temporarily until the outbreak is contained.
The rare Marburg virus has already killed 193 people out of a total 218 people infected, the Angolan Health ministry said Monday.
Like Ebola, which also has hit Africa, Marburg is a hemorrhagic fever. It spreads through contact with bodily fluids and can kill rapidly. There is no vaccine.
Several deaths attributed to the virus have been reported in four other provinces, but the only confirmed Marburg deaths can be traced back to Uige.
Doctors Without Borders and WHO medical workers were attacked on Thursday by residents who feared the teams had brought the virus with them and were responsible for spreading it. The emergency coordinator for Doctors Without Borders, Monica de Castellarnau, said the attacks stemmed from lack of information and that education campaigns were being launched.
Two cases have been confirmed in Angola's capital, Luanda, but there has been no transmission of the virus there. WHO, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Doctors Without Borders have deployed teams in Uige to combat the virus.
The worst previously recorded outbreak of the virus killed 123 people in neighboring Congo between 1998 and 2000, the last known outbreak of Marburg.
Airports in Portugal have been on alert in recent weeks for passengers coming from Angola. Angola is an ex-Portuguese colony and has a large community living in Portugal.
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