The Marburg virus has reached a fourth province in Angola, bringing the nationwide toll from the Ebola-like disease to 130, Angola’s health ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Friday.
”By March 31, a total of 137 cases, 130 of them fatal, have been recorded,” the joint commission monitoring the epidemic said in a daily briefing document, adding that the virus had spread to Kwanza Norte province, east of the capital.
The official death toll from the disease had stood at 126 on Thursday, since the worst global outbreak of the virus started six months ago.
Three more deaths have been recorded in the province surrounding the capital Luanda, in Kwanza Norte province and in Uige, the northern province that has been worst hit by the virus. No details were available about the fourth death.
The case in Kwanza Norte was recorded in the town of Camabatela, which lies 85 kilometres south of Uige and 300 kilometres east of the coastal capital.
The health ministry called on the population to help control the epidemic by alerting the authorities of any deaths in the home.
It also urged people not to touch the bodies of the deceased and to keep the authorities informed about individuals who may have been in contact with the sick.
A severe form of haemorrhagic fever akin to Ebola, the Marburg virus was first identified in 1967. It spreads on contact with the fluids the body produces in reaction to it, such as blood, urine, excrement, vomit and saliva.
The Marburg outbreak has claimed a record number of lives, overtaking the earlier peak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola’s neighbour.
The WHO is to send medical reinforcements to Angola over the weekend to help cope with the crisis.
The commission tackling the Angolan epidemic comprises WHO specialists, as well as experts from the Médécins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) medical charity and from the US-based Centres for Disease Control. — Sapa-AFP