Marburg outbreak not likely a global threat - US

Reuters via CNN ^ | April 12, 2005 | Reuters

[Dog Gone]

What Julie is saying is that she doesn't know jack, but nobody should be worried about it except the experts.

I won't be personally worried about it unless it is reported in the US, but I'm not sure how that equates to suggesting that it's not a global threat.

[Gabz]

I don't have a link but Dog Gone posted the article in it's entirety Here

.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An outbreak of deadly Marburg virus in Angola is probably not a global threat but international experts are working to bring it under control, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday.

The hemorrhagic fever, a relative of the Ebola virus, has killed some 200 people and terrified people in Uige province, northeast of Angola's capital Luanda.

It causes fever, vomiting and diarrhea and can cause internal and external bleeding. The virus can be found in all the bodily fluids so health care workers must take extreme care, CDC Director Dr. Julie Gerberding said.

"People are frightened and people are embarrassed to be associated with this but I think the important message is we need to identify those who are sick, get them into care and teach health care workers how to protect themselves from blood and body fluid exposure," Gerberding told CNN television.

There is no specific treatment for Marburg but putting patients on fluids and watching them in the hospital can help them survive.

The CDC chief said anyone who travels to the area and who is in contact with a Marburg victim needs to watch for symptoms for 10 days. But she said she did not believe the virus threatened to spread to the rest of the world.

"We're optimistic about this one," she said.

Gerberding said the CDC had sent eight staffers to Angola to join a World Health Organization team that is helping fight the virus, find and treat patients and, eventually, track down its source.

Scientists believe that Marburg, like Ebola virus, comes from an animal, possibly a monkey or other primate. Studies suggest that people become infected when they hunt and butcher monkeys, apes and other animals for the bush meat trade.

"There is a suspicion that there is some kind of primate source," Gerberding said.

At least 203 people have died from the Marburg virus in this latest outbreak out of a total of 221 known cases. Gerberding said this high mortality rate was unusual, as the virus killed about 25 percent of victims in previous outbreaks.

She said she suspected it was because people were not seeking medical care until they were very ill.

Marburg gets its name from the German town where it was first reported in the 1960s after researchers there caught it from monkeys imported from Africa. The previous worst recorded outbreak was during a 1998-2000 epidemic in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo when 123 people died.

[EBH]

THX. I don't see anything in the article providing evidence that this is under some semblance of control. How can they make a statement like this?

[Gabz]

We're the government = We know what's best to tell you.

[Dog Gone]

Realistically, how would it be helpful for Gerberding to say that it's out of control? I'm not sure that would be accurate either.

Right now I see it as a small little campfire that we're not able to control yet, but it certainly hasn't gotten to the point that it's a forest fire.

I think we're in a window of a couple of weeks. If it doesn't get substantially worse, then we're probably okay. Malaria has killed far more Angolans this year than Marburg.

If it spreads to the slums of Luanda, then all bets are off.

Some news stories suggest that we're in no danger because there are no US/Angola direct flights. That's not true. There are two weekly direct flights from Houston to Angola and back. Mostly US oil workers rotating work schedules.