Posted on 04/15/2005 6:39:43 PM PDT by EBH
"Being scared is realistic," Dr. Gail Thomson said. "You must always respect the virus and the situation you're in." Thomson, a physician from Manchester, England, who treated Ebola virus victims in Uganda, has been working for the World Health Organization (WHO) here, teaching doctors how to avoid becoming infected when taking care of patients with the deadly Marburg virus.
The Marburg outbreak here, thought to have begun in October, has killed 193 out of 218 known cases; at least a dozen of the victims have been health-care workers, including an Italian pediatrician. Training is considered essential to prevent more deaths and to convince doctors and nurses that they can do their jobs safely. At hospitals in Uige, the northern province that is the epicenter of the outbreak, some hospital employees have been afraid to go to work.
"To be able to provide the dignified supportive care patients deserve, you have to have workers," Thomson said. "Otherwise the system breaks down. We don't want to just isolate patients and not provide care...."
(Excerpt) Read more at taipeitimes.com ...
Ping
I don't know! We haven't had an update on the numbers for a couple of days. The slap on a blackout?
Two of the websites that have gone offline:
www.angolanews.com
and
www.luanda.com
Both were online late yesterday.
Any news about suspected cases quarantined in Rome? This was reported about a week ago.
I found some new numbers on Yahoo, an AFP article that I posted the web address to, on this thread:
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050415/hl_afp/angolahealthvirustoll_050415190022
If this doesn't show up as a link, would someone please make it do that? Sorry about my skills.
Anyway, the article seems to say that there have been 230 deaths, and 250 patients are being treated.
"LUANDA (AFP) - The death toll from the Marburg virus epidemic rose to 230 in Angola with the northern province of Uige registering the overwhelming majority of fatalities, the health ministry and the World Health Organisation said.
"Health officials are treating a total of 250 cases of the killer Ebola-like bug that has claimed 211 lives in Uige, the epicenter of the outbreak that was first detected in October, according to a statement from the ministry and the WHO."
Those are certainly new numbers, but consistent with "watching 150 families" etc.
Do you read it the same way I do?
They don't seem to be 24/7. At one point I thought they were down and tried them back a bit later and they were up...? Might have to do with their bandwith etc.???
No news about the suspect quarantine cases in Rome. I've looked everywhere.
Surely, if there were good news, it would have been reported...I just don't know.
Yes I read it as 230 have died and they are watching/treating another 250. But, I think the numbers are old. I think someone posted this information several days ago. The news agencies are slow in getting this story out or posted. Some articles I've been reading, while they are listed as posted for today or Sat. the information is old.
It's getting confusing for me to keep up. :-(
NPR Marburg Update: listen at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4602297
This seems to be a nasty one. Has a very high mortality rate.
There is a morbid level of 'good' news in this... inasmuch as a virus that kills the host more quickly and leaves few survivors will tend not to spread as widely as the virus that kills more slowly and leaves many surviving carriers.
Not good for those that get it, though. Seems to me that Hemorragic fever of any sort is just about the worst way to go there is.
Gotta wonder 'bout that.
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