Posted on 03/25/2005 5:03:25 AM PST by Mother Abigail
Ebola-like virus spreads in Angola
THE Marburg virus, an Ebola-like virus that has killed 98 people in northern Angola, has now spread to the capital Luanda, killing two people there.
A 15-year-old boy and an Italian paediatrician, Maria Bonino, who had both been in the northern Uige province to which the virus had previously been confined, died yesterday from the virus in Luanda, local health officials said.
At least three other people have been diagnosed with the virus in the capital, they said.
The Marburg disease, a severe form of hemorrhagic fever in the same family as Ebola, was first identified in 1967, affecting laboratory workers in Marburg, Germany and also in Frankfurt and Belgrade who had come into contact with infected monkeys from Uganda.
Mr Bonino worked for the Italian medical aid group Medici con Africa Cuamm and had 11 years experience as a volunteer in Africa with the last two years as paediatrician in the provincial hospital of Uige. Angolan health officials are battling to contain the outbreak detected in October in Uige that has claimed the lives of scores of children.
"Two nurses died Tuesday of the Marburg illness at the Uige provincial hospital," said Filomena Wilson, the spokeswoman of a commission tasked with monitoring the outbreak.
A total of five nurses have died over the past weeks from the virus that is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids of infected people, she said. The largest outbreak on record of Marburg virus occurred from late 1998 to 2000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo, killing 123 people.
The World Health Organisation said that 75 per cent of the victims of the disease had been children under the age of five.
Angolan health officials assisted by WHO experts and teams from Medecins Sans Frontieres and the US Centres for Disease Control were in Uige to try to shore up measures to stamp out the outbreak.
"The situation is bad, very bad," said health ministry spokesman Carlos Alberto. "There is no isolation room. We are setting it up."
Angolan health officials said this week there was no need to quarantine the region bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo, but tests were being conducted on the body of a man in Luanda who had exhibited the same symptoms.
Victims of the Marburg virus can suffer from a severe watery diarrhoea, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting early on in the illness followed by severe chest and lung pains, sore throat and cough, according to the WHO.
Many cases result in severe bleeding, beginning from the fifth day and affecting the gastrointestinal tract and the lungs, accompanied by a rash, sometimes involving the entire body.
The virus spread from Uige in northern Angola, to the capital, Luanda, and there were two confirmed deaths there on Thursday, a 15 year-old boy and an Italian pediatrician. A third death is being investigated and at least three others in Luanda have been diagnosed as being positive for Marburg virus.
The two doctors described above raise the number of reported health care worker infections to eight. The large number of infected health care workers and the spread of the virus to the capital, is cause for concern. Because of the relatively long incubation period, more cases are expected.
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Our relationship with God has always been centered upon the principle of "Freedom of Choice".
We are free to choose both the good and decent as well as the vile and evil.
But children be not deceived, God also chooses...
On this Good Friday a helpless woman is being killed by starvation and thirst, in the last few words that our Savior spoke were "I Thirst".
Do not choose death for this innocent child of God.
MA
Almighty and Everlasting God, preserver of souls, who dost correct those whom Thou dost love, and for their betterment dost tenderly chastise those whom Thou dost receive, we call upon Thee, O Lord, to grant Thy healing, that the soul of Thy servant, at the hour of its departure from the body, may by the hands of Thy holy Angels be presented without spot unto Thee.
Amen
The bravery under the most dire of conditions that people like this physician show is inspiring. Our prayers for the people and health care providers.
Amen
This is scary stuff.
Several times over the past years I've wondered if Marburg had all but disappeared.
I guess not.
The epidemiology of Marburg and Ebola (infection rates, death rates, incubation etc.) has shown that it is easy to control.
The spread of the virus is easy to stop, but the people who catch it usually die.
Does this one also have bleeding from the eyes?
This is known to cause bleeding from the eyes.
There is a critical level of heat in the virulence of a disease. Too cool and it doesn't spread fast. Too hot and everybody dies in a limited region and the disease dies, too, at least for the time being.
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