medpundit |
||
|
Wednesday, March 23, 2005AN illness that had killed nearly 100 people in northern Angola was identified today as the rare Marburg virus, which is from the same family as the deadly Ebola disease, state and UN officials said. Described as "very virulent" and "very contagious" and transmitted through bodily fluids, the haemorrhagic fever threatens to spread from the northern Uige province to other parts of the country. "This is a possibility. The incubation period is 21 days so we must reinforce the surveillance in neighbouring provinces and especially in Luanda," Vice Minister for Health Jose Van Dunem said. About 107 people in Uige have fallen victim to Marburg, for which there is no cure, with the number of deaths attributed to the epidemic now standing at 96. Most of the dead are children under 5. The Marburg virus is endemic to Africa and was first identified in the late 1960's, in Marburg, Germany, where laboratory workers were infected by African green monkeys imported from Uganda for polio research. It's rare for people to contract these types of viruses, but once they do, they spread easily from one person to another. Fortunately, at this point in their evolution, the virus also dies out quickly, so that the transmission cycle eventually stops. (Unlike the common cold virus, which just keeps giving and giving.) posted by Sydney on 3/23/2005 07:56:00 AM 0 comments 0 Comments: |
|