Posted on 04/09/2005 5:42:01 PM PDT by Mother Abigail
To Stop Deadly Virus in Angola, Group Seeks Hospital's Closing
By SHARON LAFRANIERE
UIGE, Angola, April 9 - An international medical charity battling a hemorrhagic fever that so far has killed 181 Angolans has urged the government to close the regional hospital here, at the center of the outbreak, saying the medical center itself is a source of the deadly infection.
Doctors Without Borders, the global relief organization that runs an isolation ward at the hospital for victims of the deadly fever, Marburg virus, told Angolan officials on Friday that the hospital should be closed if the rapidly spreading epidemic was to be contained.
Two other hospitals within 60 miles of Uige may also have to be shut down, said Monica de Castellarnau, the organization's emergency coordinator in Uige, the provincial capital, where the outbreak was first reported.
That possibility raises the prospect of a second health care crisis, one in which hundreds of thousands of people already facing a disease that is almost always fatal may suddenly have no access to hospital care. But in an interview in the streets of Uige, where an intensive effort is under way to find and isolate new cases of the virus, Ms. Castellarnau said there might be no alternative.
"The hospital has been the main source of infection," she said. "We have to break that chain somehow. It is a massive public health decision, and it must be taken by the government."
Angola's outbreak of Marburg virus, a close and equally deadly relative of the better-known Ebola, is the largest ever recorded, and continues to spread. The disease, which causes a high fever, diarrhea, vomiting and bleeding from bodily orifices, has no effective treatment. Nine out of every 10 victims here have died, usually within a week of falling ill. Uige, a town of roughly 200,000 set in the idyllic green hills of northern Angola, has become a surreal backdrop to a public-health disaster as medical workers swathed head-to-toe in spacesuit-style garb roam neighborhoods in trucks, trying to round up the sick.
Because Marburg virus is so dangerous and so contagious, spread by contact with almost any bodily fluid, from blood to sweat, the workers are encapsulated in air-filled white suits, white aprons, green gloves, face masks and face guards. On their backs they wear battery packs to keep the suits inflated. Some carry canisters of bleach or chlorine on their backs and hose sprays so they can disinfect the homes of the sick. A few have sprayed so much bleach that the buckles on their shoes are rusting.
Medical workers warn visitors not to shake hands with anyone and not to stand directly in front of residents when talking to them, for fear that a cough could release an infectious spray of spittle. Silo Margarita is one of the few nurses still working at the 500-bed regional hospital here, a sprawling collection of well-kept, one-story concrete buildings that appeared almost deserted on Saturday afternoon. Wearing a surgical mask and plastic wrapped on her boots, she continued to care for 12 patients despite the fact, she said, that as many as 15 of the hospital's nurses and two doctors have died from the Marburg virus. Two nurses died only last Thursday, she said.
"Of course I am afraid," she said. Asked why she still comes to the hospital when many co-workers have stopped, she replied, "It's an order." Medical workers here are scrambling to persuade a terrified public to alert them to sick relatives so patients can be isolated in a ward before still more people become infected. Suspected cases have already been identified in seven of Angola's provinces. In the capital, Luanda, two cases have been confirmed and one is suspected.
On Saturday, medical workers seeking to build cooperation in one neighborhood here faced angry residents, even though they were accompanied by government officials and police officers. Officials have ruled out surveillance efforts in that neighborhood, saying it has become too dangerous. Often in epidemics of such lethal diseases, medical workers become the focus of the public's fear, frustration and anger, according to officials of the World Health Organization, which is organizing the emergency response to the outbreak.
Dr. Heinz Feldmann, a Canadian with the World Health Organization who has set up a laboratory at the hospital to test for the virus, said he could check as many as a 100 samples a day. But because the medical teams were forced Thursday to suspend their community searches for new cases, he said, he was now getting only four samples a day.
Come on. I've been hearing about the Marburg outbreak for a while now, and so have you. There is no media conspiracy to keep it quiet. The main reason it hasn't been at the top of the news is the overdone coverage of the pope's death and that wedding in England. Sadly, most Americans don't listen/read past the top of the news.
We ALL stand to lose a lot if international travel and commerce is curtailed. How can you seriously suggest that the news media is suppressing the story? It would be getting much more air time/column inches were this not such a busy news time (if you want to call a week-long funeral and a long-overdue wedding "news").
Tom Clancy already wrote about it. I don't remember the title, but it was one of his Jack Ryan books.
It's a miracle it hasn't happened already.
Thanks for that information.
Actually, as a retired nurse, I can all too easily imagine the dangers for myself.
Just thinking of working in one of those suits, impossible.
And how do you keep yourself healthy, while taking care of Marburg, without one?
Thanks for the ping.
Closing the hospitals is essentially giving up on the first line of defense.
So what's the second line of defense?
If the medical response is abandoned, and there is no backup plan to keep things under control, what happens next in a city of 250,000+?
And after that, what?...
If quarantine fails, the only other "defense" is that it eventually burns itself out naturally. That has happened in the past, and could happen here. Let's hope and pray it does.
If it does not burn itself out, my guess is that it will take at least two more generations before we see numbers large enough to seem "big" to most people. If we make the pessimistic assumption that each person infects 10 others, two generations would result in 100 times as many cases.
Assuming at least 5 days for each generation to be exposed, and then become symptomatic, we are looking at 10 days (at least) before the world in general starts to pay attention. Since it's in Africa, the world may not pay attention even then.
I was replying to another post.
Do I think the media is actively supressing news on this item?
No.
Do I think if there was a case in CONUS or an epidemic type outbreak in Europe that the media would report it?
Yes
Do I think that in the 26 minutes of nightly news that stories are selected based on keeping the status quo, and also on financial considerations?
Absolutely.
Hell, I see more stories about how safe this or that SUV is than I do about things like this.
Yes, I've read the case, although it was many years ago.
<< The situation in Angola is clearly deteriorating. >>
As -- in quantum jumps -- is "the situation" in every other deepest, darkest corner of Africa.
Anyone for [Even Portuguese!] Colonialism?
I am.
BUMPping
the entire area was ringed with military...
You just reminded me of something. Angola exports a lot of crude oil. My tanker was moored offshore at Cabinda Angola about 20 years ago. The pilots that handled all the ships were ITALIAN. They had a regular duty rotation and flew regularly to Italy. The Angolan crew that came aboard were led by a CUBAN. The work boats were crewed by TEXANS.
My advise to the medical personnel in Angola: abandon command and control; quarantine the country; return home asap.
These poor bastards. My prayers are with them
<< When are the liberals with so much sympathy for the poor people, going to start demanding we let them into New York City so they can get treatment here? It isn't fair the disease isn't here yet. [They will rationalize]
Not trying to be unsympathetic about people who have this, but illustrating the mentality of the libs.
Liberalism is a Mental Disease. >>
Maybe, after January 2009, by which date we shall likely have another member of the KKKli'ton Crime Family squalidly squatting and bemanuring the oral orifice, the administrative branch of the United States of America's gummint will, by a "Stroke of the Pen, Law of the Land" fiat, declare Marburg and [While we're about it, why not?] Ebola sufferers to be designated as falling within "Marburg/Ebola Refugee" Status.
Just as the first KKKli'ton "administration" so designated who've allowed themselves to be infected with HIV/AIDS.
And New York and its ludicrous limmo liberals will be the perfect hosts.
And to that end a free hospice aught be built at the Hamptons, at once!
Also not unempathetic about the AFRICANS' PROBLEMS with their Marburg and Ebola sufferers.
And just further illustrating the libs' pathology.
Liberalism IS a Mental Disorder!
This sounds very serious.
Quarantine Angola and all other neighboring countries, for crying out loud!!!
This disease is liable to spread and infect the whole of Europe and the rest of humanity.
And, what are these idiotic Europeans doing there? Get out! They can take care of their own.
I first read about this on Free Republic it seems like two weeks ago and I remembered saying to myself, "Oh, man."
I still haven't heard much about it away from Free Republic, other than across news tickers.
The people that are there should stay there just in case they are infected
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.