SEVENTEEN people have been killed by a viral Marburg-type haemorrhagic fever among 38 cases registered in the east of Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreak occurred in the Durba region of Orientale province, according to state radio. A Marburg fever epidemic claimed 70 lives in the same region between January and May 1999. Marburg fever, named for the German town where it was identified in 1967, is close to Ebola fever, a feared killer, but the fatality rate from the former is lower. The UN World Health Organisation identifies the symptoms as fever, muscular pain, conjunctivitis and headaches, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding that can kill. The disease is known to be transmitted via certain animals or inter-human contact, notably through bodily fluids, and there is no cure as such for either Marburg fever or Ebola fever, whose animal cause is unknown.