The world’s worst outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus has so far claimed 253 lives in Angola, a joint statement by the Southern African nation’s health ministry and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Thursday.
A total of 273 cases have been recorded, of which 262 are limited to the northern province of Uige, the epicentre of the outbreak, the communiqué said.
The number of deaths in Uige total 242, the statement said, adding that 526 people are still under surveillance in this province.
”The epidemic is under control because the majority of the cases have been recorded in Uige. It is waning,” Deputy Health Minister Jose van Dunem said recently.
”If people observe all the precautions outlined by the health ministry and the WHO, including avoiding shaking hands, kissing and regularly washing one’s hands with soap, the outbreak will die out,” said Mario Felisardo Lukoki, a university academic in Uige.
He said that although some of these rules go against the social and traditional mores of the Kikongo ethnic group dominant in Uige, they have to be observed.
The Marburg virus can kill a healthy person in a week, causing diarrhoea and vomiting followed by severe internal bleeding.
Its exact origin is unknown and there is no cure. The virus spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears, but can be contained with relatively simple hygienic precautions, according to experts.
The Marburg virus was discovered in 1967 when German laboratory workers in a town of the same name were infected by monkeys from Uganda.
Until now, the most serious outbreak of the disease was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000. — Sapa-AFP