Marburg virus spreads to 5th Angolan province

[norml]

Marburg virus spreads to 5th Angolan province

April 06 2005 at 10:51AM

By Jan Hennop

Cacuaco, Angola - Angolan health workers in a slum outside Luanda were treating a new suspected case of the Marburg virus on Tuesday.

A senior United Nations official warned that the outbreak of the Ebola-like epidemic was not yet under control.

Nurses at a clinic in the township of Cacuaco, about 18km north of the capital, were scrambling to help the 22-year-old woman who they feared may be the latest casualty of the haemorrhagic fever which has so far claimed 156 lives in the biggest outbreak ever of the disease.

'Alert, Marburg. Don't touch any corpse'
The virus has spread to a fifth province.



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http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=84&art_id=qw1112762702113B252

[hatrack]

1. Thanks for the post - this has gotten pretty much zero coverage

Not to worry, it's just Marburg - a variety of Marburg that's killed about 75% of its victims in this outbreak (before, it was around 25% fatality rate).

[porphyrian]

2. Again, there are dead white people around...

...why talk about thousands of dead brown people, in another country, no less?

[hatrack]

3. Angola? Where's that?

Some knowing southerners might think of Louisiana's State Prison, but they'd be wrong, too . . .

[norml]

4. I've seen some much higher fatality rates cited in this LBN thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1332019

[Sufi Marmot]

5. As of today WHO reporting 181 cases, 156 deaths = 86% fatality rate

WHO update as of April 6th

[hatrack]

6. That's nasty even by the standards of the Marburg Virus

New strain, possibly?

[Sufi Marmot]

9. I don't know...undoubtedly they'll sequence isolates from this outbreak...

I'm not an epidemiologist, but I don't know how reliable it is to compare mortality rates from a limted number of outbreaks. I would expect that many factors such as access to reliable health care and the initial health of the infected patients might affect whether an infected patient survives or not. The first documented outbreak of Marburg occurred in Europe (hence the name) and I suspect that those patients got very different health care than those infected in Africa, and I would assume that they might have been in better overall health at the time of infection.

[ryan_cats]

7. I see we've managed to improve its efficiency

Don't tell me y'all haven't thought the same thing. I wouldn't put past either the development or testing of this virus on the goons in charge.

[amazona]

8. yeah where's the good "Dr." Hatfill?

He had access to Marburg before they found out he had no PhD. and yanked his security license -- not necessarily in that order.

Probably makes a nice change of pace from the anthrax.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[ryan_cats]

10. I know the guy's a little shaky

But with the way he was treated, I kind of feel sorry for the guy. If he really was behind the anthrax, he needs to go down, but since he seems to be so inept, maybe he is innocent.