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The first known case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in the United States was treated at Lutheran Medical Center in January 2008, it was announced Friday. The disease, which is caused by a virus indigenous to Africa, is transmitted by contact with infected animals or the bodily fluids of infected humans. The patient, who was not identified, had apparently contracted the virus when he visited Uganda. While in that country, he had visited a python cave in Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth Park, where he came into contact with fruit bats, which are capable of harboring the Marburg virus. The CDC...

WHO has been notified by the Government of the Netherlands of a case of Marburg haemorrhagic fever (MHF) in a Dutch tourist who visited Uganda. Marburg virus infection has been demonstrated by laboratory tests performed by the Bernhard Nocht Institute in Hamburg, Germany. The 40-year-old woman travelled in Uganda from 5-28 June, 2008, and entered caves on two occasions. The first cave was visited on 16 June at Fort Portal. No bats were seen in this cave. She was reportedly exposed to fruit bats during a visit to the “python cave” in the Maramagambo Forest between Queen Elisabeth Park and...

Researchers reported for the first time last week that they have found the Marburg virus in a nonprimate species — bats. Now, they have turned their attention to a bat-infested lead and gold mine in western Uganda, in an attempt to determine if bats harbor the disease between periodic outbreaks in southern Africa. One miner working in the mine died of Marburg disease on July 14, and several others apparently recovered from it. “We’re trying to see where this goes,” Jonathan Towner, the lead author of the report, published Aug. 22 in the online journal PloS ONE, said in a...

Associated Press An outbreak of a deadly Ebola-like disease at a mine in western Uganda has been contained, health officials said Thursday. The Marburg virus, a rare hemorrhagic illness, killed a 29-year-old last month. The country had not seen a Marburg outbreak for 30 years. Health Minister Dr. Stephen Mallinga said the 21-day maximum incubation period has passed with no new cases reported. "Theoretically the transmission chain has been broken, the transmission has been stopped and the outbreak contained," he said. The disease has a death rate that can be higher than 90 percent and no treatment or vaccine. Marburg...

ATLANTA, Oct. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say they have found the key mechanism by which the lethal viruses Ebola and Marburg viruses cause disease. The discovery by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Columbia University and the Caribbean Primate Research Center is expected to lead to new drugs for treatment of certain viral hemorrhagic fevers in humans and apes. The researchers identified an amino acid sequence in Filoviruses that results in the rapid depression of immunological response. That information can be used to start development of new drugs to halt the devastating diseases. Filoviruses are...

For the first time, an experimental vaccine against the deadly Marburg virus has been shown to work in monkeys even if the shot is not given until after the animals have been infected. The virus, closely related to Ebola, causes fever and severe hemorrhaging and can be fatal within a week. Epidemics of the disease have occurred in Angola and elsewhere in Africa. "Quite honestly, we were astonished," said Dr. Thomas W. Geisbert, a senior virologist at the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Fort Detrick, Md., and an author of a study being published online...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- Chinese officials maintain that a mysterious disease in pigs that has also infected and killed humans is an outbreak of swine flu, but the World Health Organization has recommended that further testing be conducted to identify the pathogen more precisely, and at least one U.S. scientist thinks it is possible a strain of Ebola virus could be involved. The disease, which has occurred predominately in China's Sichuan province, has infected 206 people, of which 38 have died and another 18 are critically ill. The Chinese Ministry of Health has said the disease is swine flu,...

GENEVA - The World Health Organisation has said that the world's worst outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Angola might be under control in the northern city of Uige after claiming 346 lives. About 411 cases, 346 of them fatal, have occurred in Angola since October with the last case recorded about one week ago in Uige following renewed checks of earlier cases of illness, spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said. "WHO experts and their partners believe the epidemic in the municipality of Uige might be under control," Chaib said. "The question is what is happening outside the municipality where access...

Scientists trying to develop vaccines against Africa's deadly Marburg and Ebola viruses are reporting an important milestone, a new type of vaccine that prevents the diseases in monkeys. Successfully immunizing monkeys is an essential step toward the goal of producing vaccines for people. Two new vaccines, one for Marburg and one for Ebola, were 100 percent effective in a study of 12 macaques being published today in the journal Nature Medicine. Monkeys given just one shot of vaccine and later injected with a high dose of virus did not even get sick. Normally, all the animals would be expected to...

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.

A SUPERFIT Royal Marine collapsed and died within days of scratching his leg on a bush while on a training run — victim of a mutated superbug one doctor described as the worst she had ever seen. Richard Campbell-Smith, 18, fell victim to pneumonia caused by a rare strain of bacteria that produces a lethal toxin that kills white blood cells. A microbiologist who gave evidence at the inquest into his death yesterday said that she had come across two such cases since December but none in the previous 15 years. Marina Morgan, of the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital,...

People with several clogged heart arteries tend to fare better if they have bypass surgery rather than a less drastic procedure in which the blood vessels are propped open with tiny mesh cylinders called stents, a study of nearly 60,000 patients has found. In the study, reported today in The New England Journal of Medicine, patients who had surgery were significantly more likely to survive and less likely to need repeat procedures. Experts noted that the two techniques had improved so much since the study was conducted that more research might be needed to determine which method works best for...

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...

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 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...

Here's the archive thread for the 2005 Angola Marburg virus outbreak. 2ndreconmarine has plotted the growth rate and made adjustment which have been posted on several threads. Here's an easy reference thread. Please post comments regarding the plots to 2ndreconmarine, as I am merely hosting the images. Angola Marburg 2005 Plot 2 Angola Marburg 2005 Plot 3 Angola Marburg 2005 Plot 4

Marburg : Malice or Malpractice ? I entered some correspondence today,concerning possible origins of the Angola Marburg epidemic: an outbreak that started among very young children,and that is killing anywhere from 89% to 97% of those it infects-(depending on whose stats you trust.) This was the response I got. " I think if you check back, previous Marburg epidemics have been in places where there weren't any children, e.g. gold-mining camps. WHO has reported that traditional healers are re-using non-sterilized syringes & needles to give their medicines to victims, hence spreading the disease, also some local doctors have not been...

Welcome to the Marburg Surveillance Project. This thread 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. We're going to use just one thread instead of having to go from article to article as we have in the past. We'll use this thread as long as we can.

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...

Al-Qaeda tries to enter Angola 22/10/2004 12:07 - (SA) Luanda - People or groups linked to the al-Qaeda terror network are trying to covertly enter the southern African nation of Angola, an official said on radio Thursday, adding that the government was on alert. The Ecclesia radio station quoted Constantino Vitiaka, head of information at the national intelligence services, as saying that there was "an attempt by elements linked to al-Qaeda to come into Angola, especially through Moslem NGOs." He said the government was keeping a close watch to see if terrorist groups were being formed, the Roman Catholic radio...

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...

At least 15 children from Coza village in the Eastern Cape's Transkei region have been rushed to hospital in Libode, suffering from stomach aches and nose bleeding. Their illness has been diagnosed as typhoid. Three of the children have been admitted to the hospital, while the rest were treated and discharged. Sizwe Khuphelo, the Eastern Cape health spokesperson, says an immunisation campaign is planned for next week.

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...

Diary from Angola's virus frontline: Part III Health workers wear special head-to-toe suits to prevent contamination Zoe Young of the medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), is keeping a diary for the BBC News Website from Angola as she helps with the emergency response to an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus. Here she writes about her work in and around the town of Uige in the north-east of the country, which has so far been the area worst hit by the epidemic. Wednesday 20 April Today was really horrible. We found out that one of the nurses in the...

Marburg virus death toll climbs to 257 in Angola LUANDA, Angola: The death toll from an outbreak of the rare Marburg virus in Angola has climbed from 244 to 257, Angola's deputy health minister said. The latest fatalities from the Ebola-like virus occurred in the northern province of Uige, where the outbreak of the disease is believed to have begun early last year, Deputy Health Minister Natalia Espirito-Santo told a news conference Friday. The World Health Organization had put the death toll at 244 on April 22. But while the number of fatalities had risen, Espirito-Santo said that for the...

Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola - update 16 29 April 2005 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...

In Brief This Information Bulletin (no. 1/2005) is being issued for information only. The Federation is not seeking funding or other assistance from donors for this operation at this time. This Buletin is issued in conjunction with the Minor Emergency for Angola: Marburg haemorrhagic fever outbreak, no. 05ME021, and it intended to highlight the response in countries neighbouring Angola. The Situation The recent surge in cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola has alerted many neighbouring countries to the risk it poses. Many have responded by means of task forces or focus committees. Cross-border travel and high mobility of people...

Marburg outbreak claims 253 lives in Angola The outbreak of Marburg, an Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever, has killed 253 people out of 273 infected in Angola, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. The ministry said that one more death and three new suspected cases of Marburg hemorrhagic fever were reported on Wednesday.

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone) April 27, 2005 Posted to the web April 27, 2005 Tuduetso Setsiba Francistown In response to the alert by the Ministry of Health on the outbreak of Marburg, Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital has designated an isolation ward for the admission of those suspected to have the virus. When addressing the full council meeting yesterday, Nyangabgwe superintendent, Dr Loeto Mazhani said they have identified two fully contained rooms for admitting those with Marburg. "The necessary supplies have been secured and all clinical departments including accident and emergency have been sensitised on the disease." However, Mazhani raised fears that the...

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...

Zoe Young of the medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), is keeping a web diary for the BBC News Website from Angola as she helps with the emergency response to an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus. Here she writes about her work in and around the town of Uige in the north-east of the country, which has so far been the area worst hit by the epidemic. Monday 18 April Today Sophie, the MSF doctor, and I went to take an oral swab from the woman who died two days ago. We waited in Songo for the army burial...

Diary from Angola's virus frontline Zoe Young of the medical NGO, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), is keeping a web diary for the BBC News Website from Angola as she helps with the emergency response to an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus. Here she describes her first two days of work in the town of Uige in the north-east of the country, which has so far been the town worst hit by the epidemic. Sunday 10 April I am absolutely exhausted. Today I went into the isolation centre in Uige hospital for the first time. There are two zones, the...

News Update: April 26, 2005 Marburg Fever: Mobile MSF Team Helps Angolan Families Safely Bury Dead When Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) arrived in Uige town on March 27, the Marburg fever epidemic was already spreading uncontrollably across the area. In the face of this emergency, they had to take on a number of dangerous responsibilities including picking up highly contagious corpses in order to prevent the epidemic from spreading further. Those appointed to carry out this hazardous job were Christian Katzer, a logistician, Josefa (Pepa) Rodríguez, a psychologist, and two local staff members trained by MSF. The following...

News Update: April 17, 2005 Stronger Measures Needed to Contain Marburg Fever in Angola Marburg Fever continues to spread in the Angolan province of Uige. As of April 17, the official death toll stood at 235 among 257 reported cases. The virus was confirmed by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 22 after extensive biological testing, and since then, 136 new cases have been identified, with 129 proving fatal. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have set forth emergency measures in order to contain the epidemic, but so far these measures have failed to stop the epidemic from...

Huambo: Mysterious Disease Kills Cattle in Longonjo Angola Press Agency (Luanda) April 25, 2005 Posted to the web April 26, 2005 Longonjo An unidentified disease has so far killed in the past six days in Catabola commune, Longonjo district, about 64 kilometres West of Huambo city, four heads of bovine cattle, ANGOP has learnt today. According to the administrator of Catabola commune, João Manuel Mendes, the disease manifests through cough, which is affecting the majority of live-stocks in that area. He admitted that if there will not be urgent intervention by veterinary services, the cattle will all die.

UÍGE, Angola, April 19 - Traditional healers here say their grandmothers knew of a bleeding disease similar to the current epidemic of hemorrhagic fever that has killed 244 of the 266 people who have contracted it. The grandmothers even had a treatment for the sickness, the healers told Dr. Boris I. Pavlin of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But the remedy has been lost. The old disease was called kifumbe, the word in the Kikongo language for murder. But kifumbe did not seem to be contagious. And so, Dr. Pavlin said, though he did not doubt it was...

JOHANNESBURG, April 24 - International health specialists battling an outbreak of Marburg virus in Angola suspect that unorthodox medical practices by local traditional healers may be contributing to the spread of the deadly disease. The experts suggest that the healers, who lack medical training and supplies but are a substitute for doctors in many rural African communities, are administering injections in homes or in makeshift clinics with reused needles or syringes. In the northern Angolan province of Uíge, where all but 11 of the 244 deaths reported in the outbreak have occurred, epidemiologists say they must convince people that such...

WHO Fears Marburg Spreading in Africa Luanda, Apr 25 (Prensa Latina) The World Health Organization fears the Marburg outbreak in Angola could become an epidemic of serious consequences for the African continent. WHO official Alfred Formend indicated the outbreak of Marburg virus currently battering eight Angolan provinces -mostly Uige- remains a threat for other regions and neighbouring countries. The behavior of the population in the affected areas is also worrying, due to the lack of confidence in preventive measures. Pascoala Solo, coordinator of the Local Anti-Marburg Commission, highlighted many infected patients leave the hospitals and return to their homes, maintaining...

Table 1: Reported cases of Marburg hemorrhagic fever (October 2004 to 20 April 2005 Month Year Cases reported Death reported October 2004 3 3 November 2004 4 4 December 2004 7 7 January 2005 20 20 February 2005 31 30 March 2005 53 47 April 2005 -> 20 April 148 133 Total 266 244

May 2 issue - The woman lay dead last week in a small mud hut in rural Angola, a trickle of crusted blood snaking from her nostril. Nearby was a syringe she had used in a last hopeless attempt to cure herself of the ghastly sickness. When a team of medics arrived, they sprayed the room with bleach and placed her corpse in a body bag. Outside the hut, some 50 people wailed and screamed, clutching photo-graphs of the loved one they had just lost. advertisement She was yet another victim claimed by the re-emergence of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in...

Laboratory tests had shown some cases previously thought to be Marburg were not, bringing the total number of known cases down to 264 from 266 on Thursday, he said.

As of 20 April, the Ministry of Health in Angola has reported 266 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Of these cases, 244 were fatal. In Uige Province, which remains the epicentre of the outbreak, 253 cases, of which 233 have been fatal, were reported as of 21 April. Assessment of the outbreak The international response to the outbreak in Angola began one month ago, on 22 March. The features of Marburg haemorrhagic fever, and the conditions in Angola, have been an extreme test of international capacity to hold emerging diseases at bay. The outbreak in Angola is the largest and...

As of 19 April, the Ministry of Health in Angola has reported 266 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Of these cases, 239 were fatal. In Uige Province, which remains the epicentre of the outbreak, 250 cases, of which 228 were fatal, were reported as of 20 April. ...

SOUTH African health officals in Johannesburg have quarantined a sick passenger who arrived by plane from Angola, amid fears the Marburg virus may spread south. The plane was taken out of service and disinfected, and the passenger was taken to hospital for tests after arriving from Angola's capital Luanda. Marburg, a haemorrhagic fever related to Ebola, has killed 239 people in Angola. Most have died in the northern province of Uige, although a few cases have been recorded in other areas, including Luanda, among people who have travelled from Uige. The death toll from the virus continues to climb, but...

[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations] LUANDA, 18 Apr 2005 (IRIN) - Traditional funeral rites in Angola are putting the families of Marburg victims at risk of contracting the killer virus. For most Angolan families, preparing the body, and kissing and embracing the deceased loved one are integral to bidding a final farewell. But the secretions from a body increase after death, making such practices highly dangerous in the case of a Marburg-related death. "We're just telling them: 'please don't touch [suspect corpses]'; 'you cannot touch them - call in the specialised groups...

An outbreak of the killer Marburg virus beyond northern Angola is being successfully controlled thanks to a combination of frontline assistance by international health agencies and "social mobilization," says Angola's top health official. ... ... the disease has been mainly confined to the northern province of Uige, where 277 people have died, ...

The sick passenger was taken to the Johannesburg Hospital for tests after arriving late on Tuesday from Angola's capital Luanda, officials said. "At the moment we can not rule out Marburg ... The blood has been taken and we are waiting for the test results," said Popo Maja, spokesman for the Gauteng Province health department. "The patient is stable and in an isolation ward," he said. Maja said doctors were observing strict infection control measures, but were treating the man, from southern Angola, for malaria whose feverish symptoms are similar to the early stages of Marburg. << Since the suspect...