Free Republic

Health experts here say, that Luanda's slums are now the center of one of the worst cholera epidemics to strike Africa in nearly a decade, an outbreak that has sickened 43,000 Angolans and killed more than 1,600 since it began in February. But it is only one reason. Cholera typically spreads through contact with contaminated water or sewage, and in Luanda's slums, both are everywhere. Neighborhoods here are ringed by mountains of garbage, often soaked by rivulets of human waste. Only about half of slum dwellers have even an outdoor latrine. Children stripped to their underwear dance through sewage-clogged creeks...

As Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao visits Angola, the BBC's Piers Scholfield examines what links the two nations. One of the worst of the countless conflicts that has blighted Africa in recent times is that of Angola. But a peace deal signed four years ago - and huge oil reserves - are now giving the Angolans hope as the country tries to rebuild its devastated infrastructure. A family living in Cambamba Dois slum Most Angolans haven't seen the benefits of the oil billions Recently China, scouring the globe for raw materials to feed its booming economy, has been drawn to...

Beijing builds goodwill in pursuit of oil, raw materials BEIJING, China (Reuters) -- China's Premier Wen Jiabao sets off to woo key African nations this week including his country's second-largest oil supplier, Angola -- but Beijing's growing economic power may mean his welcome is tempered by resentment. Thirsty for oil and raw materials, China has poured billions into African countries blessed with mineral wealth, building on a legacy of goodwill from its support of independence movements in the 1960s and 1970s. Nearly one third of China's crude imports already come from Africa, and Angola was second only to Saudi Arabia...

Friday's World Cup action begins at 8:55 a.m. ET as Argentina meets Serbia & Montenegro. The Netherlands and Ivory Coast follow that match at 11:55 a.m. If the Dutch and Argentines both win, both advance to the Round of 16 from Group C. Mexico and Angola conclude the afternoon at 2:55 p.m. Full ABC/ESPN schedule | Standings | Viewing parties |  

The opening round of the 2006 FIFA World Cup continues on Sunday with three matches, including the first match for CONCACAF side Mexico, which takes on Iran at 12 noon ET, live on ABC. The other two Group D sides, debutants Angola and a dangerous Portugal, will also be in action, closing the day's action with a 3 p.m. ET meeting in Cologne (ESPN2).

MOSCOW (Mineweb.com) -- Russia is building new resource alliances with Africa aiming, first and foremost, at the oil and gas sector, and then at diamond mining. To the extent these are capital-sharing partnerships, in which Russian state-controlled companies introduce more capital than they export, they are different from the Russian oligarch ventures that have been seen in Africa already -- Norilsk Nickel's short-lived attempt to buy into, then take over Gold Fields; Renova's manganese licences in South Africa's Kalahari; or Russian Aluminium's Nigerian government-funded takeover of the Aluminium Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON). Another difference between the new state-controlled Afro-Russian...

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (Reuters) - Greyhound Bus Lines complained to Louisiana's prisons department to stop referring to a temporary New Orleans jail, that was once its bus station, as Camp Greyhound, a prisons official said on Monday. The Greyhound bus station in New Orleans was converted into a makeshift jail by police trying to restore law and order in a city rife with crime and lawlessness in the days after Hurricane Katrina hit. "Greyhound called us on Friday and asked us not to refer to it as Camp Greyhound anymore," Pam Laborde, communications director of Louisiana's department of corrections told...

- Airline places order for 2 777-200ERs with option for 1 additional airplane - Orders 4 Next Generation 737-700QCs with 2 options SEATTLE, July 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Boeing Company (NYSE: BA - News) and TAAG Angola Airlines today said they've reached a definitive agreement for the purchase of two 777-200ER and four 737-700QC (Quick Change) airplanes. The firm airplane order has a catalogue list value of $649.6 Million and is valued at approximately $990 Million with options. The first 777-200ER is scheduled for delivery in July of 2006, when the first new 737-700 will also join the fleet. The...

THE NEXT 9/11 The next “9/11” is apt to be something most people don’t want to hear about,read about,or even think about. I’m talking about biowarfare; and, unless I miss my guess,it is being studied-using human guinea pigs-by the People’s Liberation Army of China. They have succeeded in identifying a strain of “bird flu” , called H5N –RK7,that is extremely lethal to birds and to humans. ( It is just one of 10 strains they have been studying – via “controlled releases” into their own population ; and they are still looking for the “ideal strain”.) The goals seem to...

Children are being trafficked into the UK from Africa and used for human sacrifices, a confidential report for the Metropolitan Police suggests. Children are being beaten and even murdered after being labelled as witches by pastors, the report leaked to BBC Radio 4's Today programme said. Police face a "wall of silence" in investigations because of fear and mistrust among the groups involved. It follows the case of a girl tortured by her guardians for being a witch. Three people, including the girl's aunt, were convicted of trying to "beat the devil out of" the un-named 10-year-old - originally from...

This is the Marburg Surveillance Project Thread II. This thread, as the first one was, will be used for all of the latest Marburg Outbreak News and comments. This is the place to post all comments about the Marburg outbreak, all articles and links to articles about the Marburg outbreak.

The number of new cases of people infected with the Marburg virus in Angola has declined in the past few days, but the epidemic is still not under control, the World Health Organization is reporting. New cases are still occurring in Uíge, the same northern province where the epidemic has been centered since it was first identified on March 21. In recent weeks the disease invaded several neighborhoods that it had not reached before, said Aphaluck Bhatiasevi, a spokeswoman in Uíge for the health organization. In addition, she said, in some areas where the virus had been detected before, new...

Marburg Toll in Angola Rises to 327 Recombinomics Commentary May 9, 2005 The Marburg toll in Angola rose to 327 on Friday when 8 new cases were recorded in the Ministry of Health's daily report. All but 11 of the reported cases were in Uige province. There were four additional deaths, raising the total to 287, again with all but 11 in Uige. However, on Friday, May 6, seven more cases were administratively removed from the list. Since there are now only 11 "official" cases outside of Uige, the 7 cases removed all came from within Uige city, where there...

Marburg Toll in Angola Explodes to 313 Recombinomics Commentary May 3, 2005 >> There have been 313 cases detected of the Marburg virus since monitoring of the outbreak, the worst recorded to date, began on October 13, it added……. Deputy Health Minister Jose van Dunem told journalists that a health team travelled to the village of Ngombe, 150km north of the city of Uige, on Sunday and was told that a woman who had attended the funeral of a relative in Uige had spread the virus to the village. "When she returned to Ngombe, she contaminated 12 other members of...

JOHANNESBURG, May 13 - Nine people have died in the Congo Republic since late April from what appears to be an outbreak of the Ebola virus, the second episode of a deadly hemorrhagic fever to strike the region this year, a spokesman for the World Health Organization said Friday. The latest outbreak is taking place as the Congo Republic's southern neighbor, Angola, battles an epidemic of Marburg virus, a hemorrhagic fever closely related to Ebola. So far, 280 people have died in that epidemic, which has yet to be contained eight weeks after the virus was first identified. Health officials...

Marburg kills 280 03/05/2005 09:53 - (SA) Luanda - The death toll from the outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Angola has reached 280, most of whom succumbed to the disease in the northern Uige province, the health ministry and the World Health Organisation said late on Monday. Of the 280 dead, 269 were in Uige province and a further 208 people are under medical observation in that region after coming into contact with an infected person, a statement from the ministry and the WHO said. There have been a total of 313 cases detected of the Marburg virus...

Translation via Google. Uíge: Minister of the Health affirms that Marburg is in the phase of Uíje eradication, 02/05 - the minister of the Health, Sebastião Veloso, said sunday, in the city of the Uíge, that the hemorrhagic fever of Marburg, that devastates the population has seven months, is currently in final phase, that is of its eradication. The minister said to the journalists moments after its return of plus an day of constatação and social mobilization that took it to the locality of the Gombe, city of the Bungo, seventy quilómetros of the city of the Uíge. In this...

As of 27 April, the Ministry of Health in Angola has reported 275 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Of these cases, 255 were fatal. In Uige Province, which remains the epicentre of the outbreak, 266 cases, of which 246 have been fatal, were reported as of 28 April. With all control measures - teams, equipment, and protocols - needed to contain the outbreak now in place, extreme care must be taken to guard against any practices that could again amplify transmission. At this point in the outbreak, an amplification event would be a setback capable of extending the presently intense...

The Angolan Ministry of Health reported totals of 275 cases of Marburg hemorrhagic fever and 255 fatalities on Wed 27 Apr 2005. Therefore there have been only 2 additional deaths during the past 72-hour period, suggesting that the situation has been stabilized despite the lapse in disease security at the Provincial Hospital in Uige. - Mod.CP] The above commentary at ProMed is incorrect because it is relying on the daily totals in the Minstry of Health report, but the report totals included the number of new cases minus the number of discarded cases. Thus, the report on April 27 indicated...

Dangerous mistakes at a hospital in Angola in recent days could undo the work of medical teams who have been battling an epidemic of the deadly Marburg virus, the World Health Organization reported on Friday. Twice in the past week, doctors at the provincial hospital in the northern city of Uíge were exposed to blood from infected patients, and so are now at risk of developing the disease themselves. The virus causes a hemorrhagic fever that can be fatal within a week. The outbreak in Angola, the largest on record, has killed 255 of the 275 people known to be...