Posted on 04/13/2005 11:38:04 AM PDT by AntiGuv
UIGE, Angola (AFP) - There is no end in sight to the outbreak of the Marburg virus in Angola, a top expert from the World Health Organisation said, citing "massive problems" in mobilising Angolans to fight the Ebola-like bug in this northern city.
"After four weeks, this epidemic is still peaking," said Pierre Formenty, the WHO's top specialist on new and dangerous diseases.
"It has not been stopped, because we have massive problems in mobilising the community against it," he told AFP as the death toll from the deadly haemorrhagic fever hit 210.
The length of the epidemic "really depends on the degree of the mobilisation by the Angolans, of the people itself, not only on the authorities... They don't realise that it could take months," Formenty said in an interview.
A team of top scientists arrived last month in the northern city of Uige, the epicenter of the epidemic that was first detected in October in this poor southern African country, devastated by 27 years of civil war.
Their efforts have been met with fierce resistance and denial by many residents in Uige, who are shunning the hospitals and the specially-suited medical teams that roam the city in search of Marburg cases.
"Uige is not a classic urban environment. It's a village with 200,000 inhabitants," said Formenty, a French doctor who has been on various WHO teams to combat a dozen similar deadly outbreaks, including Ebola which hit mainly rural areas in central Africa.
"The difference between this outbreak of Marburg and previous outbreaks, including Ebola, is that this one is in an urban, confined area, while the others were in rural areas," said Tom Ksiazek, who heads the Atlanta-based Centres for Disease Control's (CDC) special pathogens branch.
"(That is what's making) this one more difficult to control," he told AFP.
Apart from a lack of information to the public, despite the best efforts of the WHO -- which are distributing pamphlets and have asked a trio of musicians to record a song about the virus -- health experts are trying to battle the outbreak with the very little infrastructure left over from the war that ended in 2002.
There is almost no running water and no electricity, except for a few homes running on generators in Uige, some 300 kilometres (180 miles) north of the capital Luanda.
The Marburg virus, whose exact origin is unknown and for which there is no cure, spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears, but can be contained with relatively simple hygenic precautions, according to experts.
The oubreak in Angola has overtaken an earlier outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo as the largest ever recorded of the virus, first detected in 1967 when German laboratory workers in Marburg, were infected by monkeys from Uganda.
More experts are on their way to join the battle being fought by the WHO and Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors without Borders).
The WHO team has grown from 13 to 20 in the last five days and MSF was also sending in reinforcements. Planes carrying in supplies and personnel are flying in almost daily.
"The WHO has put out a call for assistance and we are responding to that. At the moment we are about nine people here in Angola, but more are coming," said Ksiazek.
The Roman Catholic Church has also said it will work with health workers in Angola to help the nation contain the largest recorded outbreak of the Marburg virus.
Bishop Francisco da Mata Mourisca of the northern Uige province said priests would inform residents in the region of the steps they must take to avoid becoming infected.
"The main job at the moment is to avoid contagion, but to do that we have to increase public awareness of the population, which is not well informed at the moment," he told Lisbon-based Portuguese state radio RDP.
Mourisca said local residents have especially not understood why it is necessary to wrap the body of the victim of the disease in plastic and immediately bury it.
"This gesture has shocked people a bit and it has created tension, this is what is really worrying us," he said.
"The people traditionally treat a corpse with respect, the hug it, kiss it, they say good-bye to the person but they can't do that as it spreads the disease," he added.
Marburg ping!
Ya, wait until one of the bozo's returns back to give his status report. I wonder if those Y2k bunkers are still going cheap?
How bad does this have to get befoer they stop travel to the area?
Just because I'm paranoid doesn't make it not so.
If it's peaking that would mean there a fall in cases.
My guess is that it's already too late. I'd be a bit surprised if it hasn't already gotten into the Dem. Rep. of Congo and it could float around there for several months before enough people get it to be noticed. Then it'd all start over again even if they otherwise limit the outbreak to Angola. Just a hunch.
re: "peaking"
Politicians quoted on the matter are trying to spread
sunshine, but the case growth rate is still uncontained.
See graphs from last night in thread:
Marburg Toll in Angola Rises to 237 - 11 in Luanda
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1382511/posts?page=32#32
Yikes!
"After four weeks, this epidemic is still peaking,"
said Pierre Formenty, the WHO's top specialist on
new and dangerous diseases. ..."
If this isn't a mistranslation, this dude needs to be
fired. He's at least in need of remedial spin training.
"... Formenty, a French doctor ..."
Ah, explains everything.
I'm not worried about travel to this area. I am worried about people who have been in this area traveling here. Flights originating or passing through Angola should be banned from landing in this country until further notice, as should individuals who have traveled there.
Effective pursuit of the contacts seems to be very important at this stage if they hope to contain it before a major cross border outbreak.
Here are some pictures from Angola and the City of Luanda. These are not villages like what one has mentally pictured: http://www.mangais.com/english/2-h_Fotografias_Luanda_eng.htm
pinging
The first derivative (slope) of the cases vs. time curve would peak.
Try this one for pictures too: http://www.picturesofplaces.com/Africa/angola.html
Crazy, quarantine, bleach, incinerate...sounds harsh but so is the disease.
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