Marburg epidemic claims at least 184 lives in Angola

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that the death toll from the epidemic of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has jumped to 184 from a total of 213 cases recorded in Angola until Saturday.

In a statement published in Luanda on Sunday, WHO said that all the reported cases of the Ebola-like disease had originated in the northwestern province of Uige, though patients have died elsewhere,including Luanda, Zaire, Malange, Kuangza Norte, Kuanza South and Cabinda provinces, according to the statement.

WHO's deputy director-general, Anarfi Asamoa-Baah, issued an alert in Luanda for neighboring countries to adopt emergency precautions to avoid the spread of the epidemic that first broke out in Uige in October 2004.

The United Nations' aid coordination body, OCHA, also launched an international appeal for a fund of 3.5 million US dollars to help contain the Marburg outbreak.

Like Ebola, which also has hit Africa, Marburg is a hemorrhagicfever. It spreads through contact with bodily fluids and can kill rapidly. There is no vaccine.

The World Health Organization, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Doctors Without Borders have deployed teams in Uige to combat the virus.

The worst previously recorded outbreak of the virus killed 123 people in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1998 and 2000, the last known outbreak of Marburg.

Source: Xinhua