Angola's National Assembly has started a special session to approve a resolution on the Marburg hemorrhage fever that has caused a death toll of 155 until Monday.

Angolan Health Minister Sebastiao Veloso confirmed on the special session Tuesday that the death toll from the Marburg virus epidemic has risen to 155 from the 175 cases registered.

The deputies were informed by Veloso and the chairman of the Physicians Order, Joao Bastos, on the current state of the disease,as well as the measures to isolate the virus, about which the National Assembly will adopt a resolution.

Veloso dismissed any possibility of isolating the province of Uige, where the first cases were detected a month ago.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the decision by the Luanda authorities not to quarantine the northern province, the origin off all Marburg cases to date, was the correct action.

The isolation of Uige to contain Marburg would have had the opposite effect to that intended, as "unauthorized movements of populations" would spread the deadly virus, said the WHO.

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.

The 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