Posted on 04/11/2005 7:41:12 PM PDT by Judith Anne
UIGE, Angola Larrinda Pinto died Thursday, probably unaware of the frantic effort that would follow, as emergency medical workers tried to block the spread of the Marburg virus that claimed her life. .
Someone alerted one of the mobile teams of health workers that scour neighborhoods here daily that Pinto, a 42-year-old pediatric nurse, had appeared to be another victim of the Marburg epidemic that is centered in this northern province. .
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Please use any ping lists you have, for those who might be interested...my brain is falling asleep...
Art Bell's all over this.
PS, the article says that they think it will be two more months before this outbreak is brought under control.
I actually laughed.
Well the good news is that is says they are getting fewer news cass this week.
I think my number the other night was 5,400. Yes, this hasn't peaked yet and with people not coming forward and hiding the dead or fleeing the cities it's only going to get worse.
The communication with the victims doesn't seem to be helping. And this lady was a nurse and the family knew, damn it...the family knew.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Fear, Ignorance Fuel Marburg Outbreak in Angola
Apr 11, 9:06 AM (ET)
By Zoe Eisenstein
LUANDA (Reuters) - Fear and ignorance are fueling the world's deadliest outbreak of Marburg fever in Angola, where locals are too suspicious of medics in "astronaut" suits to let them take away infected loved ones, aid workers said on Monday.
Terrified residents stoned World Health Organization (WHO) workers' vehicles late last week, putting a brief halt to their operations to contain the disease in Uige province, northeast of Angola's capital Luanda.
"We no longer have people coming to the isolation ward -- people are hiding their patients at home because they're scared. That means the virus keeps on spreading in the community," Monica Castellarnau, emergency coordinator for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in Uige, told Reuters by phone from Uige.
The outbreak has killed 192 of the 213 known cases. There is no cure for the disease which is related to Ebola.
"We've become scapegoats. That's how people express their fear, grief and anger at the situation. They see we've got an isolation ward with very restricted access -- they think we're doing funny things," Castellarnau said.
"People have not been given sufficient information to understand the measures that are necessary to stop the virus ... It's crucial people understand the public health risk of keeping sick people at home. Only then can we start to control the spread of the virus," she said.
Marburg, a rare hemorrhagic fever, is spread through contact with bodily fluids including blood and saliva. Symptoms include headaches, internal bleeding, nausea, vomiting and bloody diarrhea.
MSF has opened the city's only isolation ward in a cordoned-off section of the general hospital.
But Castellarnau said the hospital should be closed to all non-Marburg cases to avoid it becoming a source of infection.
"We have strongly recommended that the hospital be closed temporarily and this is because the risk of infection at the hospital is unacceptably high," she said.
Health workers have said basic hygiene rules are still not fully observed in Angolan hospitals.
"ASTRONAUT SUITS"
Emergency measures to deal with the outbreak have stretched to the limit Angola's healthcare facilities which have been left in tatters after decades of civil war.
But many locals have not welcomed the strange-looking healthcare workers who have descended on Uige city dressed in full protective clothing.
Experts say that is to be expected.
"Wherever there is (an) epidemic we are used to seeing ... hostility, sometimes from the community, because we are interfering in how they are living," said WHO country representative Fatomata Diallo.
"Especially in this kind of epidemic where you have to have special clothes, like an astronaut, and come into the family to take a sick person or suspected case. When you come to take away a body, a dead body, with all this kind of clothing, sometimes it is not easy for the community to accept it," she said.
Marburg gets its name from the German town where it was first reported in the 1960s after researchers there contracted it from monkeys imported from Africa. The previous worst recorded outbreak was during a 1998-2000 epidemic in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo when 123 people died.
I started listening to him over 10 years ago! Some nights he is really way, way out there. Other nights, when he gets them cutting edge science guys on to interview it's quite interesting. Learned about stuff like anthrax and bioweapons, weather control, and some of the wacky stuff too. He either has my attention or has me laughing myself to sleep!
And THIS is what the people trying to control the outbreak are doing--the UN and WHO controlled personnel.
Just another reason to be pessimistic...
"The drop in the number of admissions at the main hospital in Uige is not an indication that the infections in the country are declining. It merely reflects the fact that no one entering the hospital in Uige infected with Marburg virus has come out alive, even though over a hundred patients have been admitted over a 1-2 week period."
"Thus, the reduced number of admissions, like the increase in number of patients alive, does not represent progress. The numbers simply represent a lack of confidence in the ability of the treatments in the hospitals to save lives, and an increase in newly diagnosed cases."
Frightening...
If we compare with previous weeks, when we had 10 to 15 cases a day, now we have four to five cases a day,"
The article sounds more like reported cases. Wouldn't that include cases that were reported from homes like the victim that was discussed. That isn't admission numbers but case numbers.There could be an equal or larger number of new cases that are going unreported but using that assumption wouldn't be factual just an assumption.
The British mag above would say it is all the fault of the Pope not allowing condoms. However, apparently it is very hard to do science in superstitious surroundings. (btw, I regard At Bell as mainly superstitious surroundings)
With the slight problem that 99% of the info presented is pure garbage.
Wasn't it Clint Eastwood who said "dying ain't much of a living son" or something to that effect?
I would think that every airline servicing Angola would cease operations into and out of that country, and any Angolan presenting for international travel who was recently in Angola be denied access. Any flight originating in Angola be denied landing privileges at the threat of destruction.
I wonder what the WHO care-providers think they are going to accomplish with a hostile client base and a viral illness with apparently a >90% lethality?
While sad, emphasis needs to be on isolation of this area, with military enforcement if necessary.
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.