Posted on 03/27/2005 6:25:54 AM PST by Mother Abigail
March 27, 2005
PROSPECTIVE travellers to Angola have been warned not to go to the southern African country for at least a week, after an outbreak of the deadly Ebola-like Marburg virus, which has claimed at least 120 victims.
"Travellers planning to go to Angola should not go there unless it's absolutely necessary," said Andrew Jamieson of the Johannesburg-based Netcare Travel Clinic, which keeps tabs on outbreaks of diseases in Africa.
Angola was awaiting the arrival of foreign medical experts, sent to check the killer virus which had claimed 120 lives by late Saturday and spread to a new region.
Mr Jamieson told AFP many people, including expatriates, were now considering evacuating their families from the country.
"While this is not considered essential, it will place a burden on transport infrastructure that may cause significant local disruption," he said.
"It is likely that any uncertainty or disruption caused by this outbreak will resolve in the course of the next week."
A health ministry official said a pregnant woman died of the Marburg virus in a hospital in the northern province of Cabinda yesterday, the first fatality outside the capital Luanda and the province of Uige, bringing the nationwide death toll to 120 in less than six months.
"I can confirm that... a woman died in the hospital in Cabinda from haemorrhagic Marburg fever," said Filomeno Forte, the head of the health ministry's epidemiology department.
"This woman came from Uige, where there had been a death in the family from Marburg. She did not disclose the information when she arrived in Cabinda," located about 500km west of Uige and 300km north of Luanda.
"It is the first and only case of Marburg in Cabinda," Forte said.
Four people also died from the Marburg virus in the Uige provincial hospital yesterday.
The Marburg virus, a severe form of haemorrhagic fever in the same family as Ebola, was first identified in 1967. The disease kills around one in four who contract it and a specific treatment for it is unknown.
Until now the most serious outbreak of the disease was in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where 123 people died between 1998 and 2000.
The Angolan epidemic broke out in October last year but has worsened in the past three weeks, with a total of 117 dead in Uige and two in Luanda. Three-quarters of the deaths have been children under the age of five, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), but the virus has also started to claim adult victims including at least six medical workers.
There have been several large outbreaks involving the two viruses, and most of the larger outbreaks have been characterized by a high case fatality rate. In 1976 there were two large EBOV outbreaks. In southern Sudan 117 out of 284 patients died, giving a case fatality rate of 42%. In adjacent Zaire 280 out of 318 patients died, case fatality rate of 88%.
The largest MBGV outbreak was between 1998 and 2000 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where 123 out of 149 patients died, case fatality rate of 83%.
For the current outbreak, a retrospective analysis by the WHO, after the causative agent was identified, indicated 95 out of 102 patients died, case fatality rate of 93%. Recently updated figures of 115 out of 123 deaths, also generates a case fatality rate of 93%, which is the highest rate recorded for larger EBOV and MBGV outbreaks
MA
man I can't imagine the problems those surviving 7% will have....
especially with hemorragic type fevers....ouch....
Ping
The mortality rates of these viruses (virii?) are truly alarming.
Has the US been blamed yet? How long before the left insists that we start importing the virus-carriers?
The thought of this getting loose in a major population
center is terrifying.
For a week? What makes anyone think it's all going to be over in a week? How about for the next twenty years?
how about ever
What is even more terrifying, is that it could very well happen.
That's interesting. I was always under the impression that Ebola's mortality rate was greater than Marburg's. Is this a mutation of the existing Marburg strain?
This severe form of hemorrhagic fever is so lethal it burns out when it runs out of contacts. As long as the sufferer is isolated from further contacts the guy dies and that's it. The remains must not be handled without precautions.
The virus reservoir is some animal deep in the bush.
For the current outbreak, a retrospective analysis by the WHO, after the causative agent was identified, indicated 95 out of 102 patients died, case fatality rate of 93%. Recently updated figures of 115 out of 123 deaths, also generates a case fatality rate of 93%, which is the highest rate recorded for larger EBOV and MBGV outbreaks
Yikes!
Excuse me. May I see the hands of those people planning their summer vacation to Angola. None???? Oh!
CDC says that the mortality rate is actually 25%. There's an earlier thread on the subject.
This is how epidemics spread. This disease spreads like wildfire and is horribly fatal. It may seem heartless but the country should be quarantined to prevent spreading the disease worldwide.
CDC is a government bureaucracy and therefore it is wrong. The CURRENT mortality rate is three times what CDC says.
I have to disagree with you on that. The article everyone is referencing says X number infected, Y number killed. It doesn't say "of that number, Y died," it just give number infected and number killed. In the absence of more information, I tend to think they mean "X number of people infected that survived, Y number infected and died".
If you know anything about CDC, you know that (if anything) the CDC almost always *overestimates* the mortality rate.
"I can't imagine the problems the remaining 7% would have."My thoughts as well.When ebola popped up a few yrs ago i did some reading on the effects of the disease.Insideous.Even if someone survives,the damage to their internal organs is massive.I don't think a person could ever realy recover.PS could you imagine if this illness were weaponized like anthrax?
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