Angola may be declared free of Marburg virus - 90 percent mortality rate

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=117&art_id=qw1127230920466A524

Luanda - Angola may be declared free of the Marburg virus in three weeks after no new cases of the Ebola-like bug were reported in the past 21 days, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Monday.

The death toll from the Ebola-like fever in Angola officially stands at 329 since it broke out last October, with the outbreak centred in the country's northern Uige province.

There have been no new cases reported in the past 21 days but the WHO said in a statement that "a minimum period of three weeks is needed for the epidemic to be declared over". snip

It spreads through contact with bodily fluids such as blood, excrement, vomit, saliva, sweat and tears but can be contained with relatively simple hygienic precautions, according to experts.

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5700864&cKey=1113941116000

Fighting Deadly Marburg Outbreak May Benefit Angola

<snip>Current efforts are focused on catching cases and stopping them from spreading, the health experts said. The initial symptoms of Marburg -- headache, malaise and high fever followed by vomiting and diarrhea -- are similar to those of any number of other, common infectious diseases.

Marburg is transmitted through bodily fluids such as blood, sweat and saliva. Symptoms include high fever, vomiting, diarrhea and internal bleeding.

The 90 percent mortality rate is probably due to poor health care and not some special lethality of the virus itself, doctors say.

"It takes very close contact with a known patients, usually very seriously ill, to become infected with this virus," said Ksiazek. "This is not a disease that is going through the general community in Uige."

[MnFats]

1. i hope they're not too cavalier about this...

...the little buggers are mutating all the time and becoming more efficient killing machines....but three weeks is good news.
damn, but this stuff scares me..

[hallc]

2. ha - i was just reading about this

I hadnt heard anything in awhile on it, and read up on it on the WHO website. 90% mortality rate is insane - I'm glad they think its over

[Silverhair]

3. As long as it need direct contact to spread, we are safe.

Good basic hygiene will keep it contained. If it ever mutates into an airborne form, then we are in deep, deep trouble.

Ebola (In the same branch of the virus family as Marburg) does have an airborne form. Fortunately, that airborne form is harmless to humans, deadly (100%) to monkeys.

There are some really bad bugs out there.