Posted on 04/26/2005 7:05:39 PM PDT by Judith Anne
The Minister of Health of Equatorial Guinea announced an "urgent alert" on Friday [22 Apr 2005?] for the general population of the country following the death of a man presenting with the symptoms of Ebola hemorrhagic fever in Bata, the 2nd largest city of the continental part of the country, according to a report on Sat 23 Apr 2005 on national radio. <<
Historically, this region of Africa has had hemorrhagic fevers caused by Ebola. There is a nearby outbreak among non-human primates. However, Bata is only several hundred miles north of Cabinda, where there has been one official case of Marburg and an earlier reported case that was subsequently discarded. The discarding of cases has been widespread outside of Uige, and now the official count has fallen to 11, all fatal.
More information on the victim in Bata, Equatorial Guinea would be useful. Although the official reports from the Angola Ministry of Health have not had new Marburg cases for several days, the criteria for excluding cases outside of Uige remain unclear.
Lack of transmission in more outlying regions is not yet conclusive because of a lack of information on excluded cases.
Ping to y'all...
From the PROMED ALERT:
The Minister of Health of Equatorial Guinea announced an "urgent alert" on
Friday [22 Apr 2005?] for the general population of the country following
the death of a man presenting with the symptoms of Ebola haemorragic fever
in Bata, the 2nd largest city of the continental part of the country,
according to a report on Sat 23 Apr 2005 on national radio.
"Any patient with a very high fever and hemorrhaging from mouth, ears, nose
and eyes, must be taken immediately to the nearest health centre" declared
the Minister in a communique read on the national radio.
The local heath authorities recommended also that: "Deceased individuals
with the above symptoms should be buried immediately" in order to prevent
spread of this virus [infection], which is fatal in the majority of cases.
The text stated also warned against: "Handling a cadaver for washing or
dressing, (....) and to avoid eating meat from monkeys or animals found
dead in the forest."
Bata, the economic capital, is situated in the continental part of
Equatorial Guinea, bordering Gabon, a country that has had [outbreaks] of
Ebola [fever] several times in previous years. Precautionary measures have
been taken in several other central African countries, including Gabon, to
prevent transmission of Marburg hemorrhagic fever, [which is caused by a
virus] closely related to Ebola virus, and which, since October 2004, has
been affecting Angola, where more than 240 persons have died [as a result
of Marburg fever].
Link to Promed alert, above:
http://www.promedmail.org/pls/askus/f?p=2400:1001:10652400029974266214::NO::F2400_P1001_BACK_PAGE,F2400_P1001_PUB_MAIL_ID:1000,28766
Hmmm.
Oh Oh.. here we go. Is this Marburg? Pray that it's not.
No sense in panicking yet, but if it turns into a cluster, it's real bad news.
I know you have read ravenously on the subject. How long does it take to establish the genetic fingerprint of the virus, once a specimen is obtained and delivered to a DNA analysis facility? (how long it takes to release the information is another matter).
I have no idea if it's possible or not, but if the same monkey got Marburg and Ebola at the same time, could the RNA from each mix? Both are filoviruses...
Are Marburg symptoms not similar or the same as Ebola?
Also from the pro-med alert (its' prologue):
Date: Tue 26 Apr 2005
From: Christiana Coyle
Certain news broadcasts from Radio France Internationale on 23 Apr 2005
contained a report that one individual in Bata in Equatorial Guinea had
died from a disease believed to be Ebola hemorrhagic fever.
Does anyone have further information concerning this case?
--
Christiana Coyle
Epidemiologist, US Department of Defense
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
US DoD???????? WTF?
A field lab person in Uige said he could do 50 tests per day (he was only doing 10 or so a day, when he wrote this)...he's there to do testing, with one of two portable labs now placed in Angola.
Accuracy depends on the quality of the specimen being tested, and quality can degrade depending on the conditions of collection, storage and transport, so there are likely to have been false negatives among the ones sent all the way to the CDC. I'm guessing the ones sent to the portable labs are higher quality...
That has to be the understatement of the year.
Apparently, we are not the only ones frustrated with that.
I know.
This is no laughing matter, but I laughed when I read that, too...
It looks like a 1000km jump. I'm *guessing* not related to the Uige Marburg cases.
Either that or there's a whole pile of cases en route that we haven't heard about...
My concern all along has been the underreporting and false negatives of this Marburg outbreak...
I'm sure Christiana Doyle knows everything about the Marburg cases that we know, except what we want to know: where are they all, and how many are there?
Following....(bump)
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