Angolan Deputy Health Minister Jose Van-Dunem has disclosed that 132 people died of the outbreak of Marburg among 140 cases reported in the northern Uige province, on the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Speaking at a press briefing here at the weekend, the deputy minister said that in the other parts of the country, his ministry has been discarding suspect cases proved to have no connection with the Ebola-like virus.

He mentioned the case of a teacher who died in Negage city (Uige) after he had had contact with an infected relative, and another two suspects that are under medical test in the last 24 hours.

Jose Van-Dunem denied any case in the clinic of the Luanda Electricity Supplying Company (EDEL), adding he worked on Friday with a medical team that did not record any such case.

He also denied new cases in Uige schools and the closing of education institutions, adding that the government had canceled such a measure after realizing that the kids had died at home, not at school.

According to the deputy minister, two specialists sent in from Canada by the World Health Organization (WHO) are working in laboratories installed to test for the Marburg virus.

He also said that another five specialists with the US Atlanta laboratory are expected in Angola to join the WHO staff.

He said that the National Public Health Services, jointly with the Atlanta laboratory, trained 60 Angolan nurses with public and private institutions, equipping them with bio-security skills enabling them to safely work on the epidemic.

Marburg is a viral infection of the rhabdovirus group whose clinic manifestations are a hemorrhagic fever syndrome feared to originate from a type of green ape.

The transmission occurs either through contact with infected animals and human beings, or through the semen during sexual intercourse, as well as through the manipulation of body fluids. Head and muscles pains, high fevers, indisposition, vomits, diarrhea, nausea and others are the symptoms of the first five to seven days, followed by hemorrhage through vomits, the vaginal canal, skin and eyes.

The Marburg virus was first identified in 1967. Several African countries including South Africa and Kenya have also experienced the epidemic.

Three-quarters of the deaths in Angola have been children under the age of five, according to the WHO, but the virus has also started to claim adult victims since it erupted in October in Uige province and began rapidly spreading in February.

Source: Xinhua