WHO UPDATE! WHoooo-Hoooo! /Sarcasm off
Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola – update 20
27 May 2005
As of 26 May, the Ministry of Health in Angola has reported 399 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Of these cases, 335 were fatal. The vast majority of cases have occurred in Uige Province, where 388 cases and 324 deaths have been reported.
Yesterday, four new suspected cases, of which three were fatal, were reported in Bungo municipality, in Uige Province. Two of these cases have been laboratory confirmed. These are the first cases in this municipality detected since early April. An urgent investigation has been launched to determine whether the Bungo cases can be linked to Uige municipality, where transmission is known to be ongoing. Another focus of transmission would be a disturbing development for outbreak control.
In Uige municipality, procedures for contact tracing are now operating with greater efficiency. This week, staff from the mobile surveillance teams were able to visit and look for signs of illness in more than half of the 100 persons known to have had close contact with a Marburg patient. New cases are, however, continuing to occur with no known link to a previous case, suggesting that the surveillance system has not yet reached the efficiency needed to interrupt chains of transmission.
Local and international staff have continued to identify cultural practices that create opportunities for exposure to the virus and thus allow the outbreak to continue. Most recently, around 200 traditional healers have been trained in ways to reduce risks to themselves and their clients and given masks and gloves. To date, at least two traditional healers have died of Marburg haemorrhagic fever.
Intensive educational campaigns, supported by local religious leaders and Red Cross volunteers, about the hazards of home treatment using injections have resulted in the collection and safe disposal of large numbers of syringes. It is not certain, however, that this practice, which is a highly efficient way to spread the virus, has been fully eliminated in Uige’s population.
http://www.who.int/csr/don/2005_05_27a/en/index.html
Cut out the url to the above.
That ain't good news.
Yep, yep, yep....they are still using ministry of health as a cover for not issuing their own numbers...
...at least two traditional healers dead, well...their doing pretty good if only two have died...maybe WHO, etc. should let them takeover!
Sorry if I seem annoyed, I am !!! This lack of information is ridiculous....
Thanks for the update tdewey10!
I keep thinking about those 4000 sets of bedding handed out earlier, and hoping that doesn't mean 1000 new cases Monday.
We have now seen significant increases in the number of active cases in the last two reports running.
399 - 335 - 5 = 59
A few days ago the number of active cases was 40.
A few days before that the number of active cases was 33.
A few days before that the number of active cases was 26. Moreover, the number of active cases had remained at 26 for several weeks.
The last reported numbers I remember were from the NTY, and were: 376/315. That was 2 days ago. On May 23, the numbers were: 347/315 with 27 active cases.
These new data are fascinating for several reasons. First, if you figure that we have about 30 active cases during the last week, then you would expect 30 additional deaths in a week. However, if you have followed this epidemic, you will know that the numbers never added up. There were no known survivors, but the death count did not increase to account for the number of active cases.
These are the first data that seem to make sense in that regard. The total growth of the epidemic and deaths is properly matched by the number of active cases. All are increasing with the same e-folding time.
It will be interesting to see if the numbers drop with administrative reclassification shortly.
Pinging the list to post 1620, posted by tdewey10, new update from WHO with new numbers.
Bump.