The World Health Organization said Friday that the deadly Marburg virus outbreak in Angola remained out of control, with officials urging sustained international and local engagement for at least the next four to six weeks. The hemorrhagic fever has killed 174 people, a toll that more than doubled over three weeks and has spread across seven of Angola's 18 provinces.
WHO emergency response chief Mike Ryan said the crisis was centered in the northern Uige province, where community distrust of medical workers was complicating containment efforts. He stressed that gaining local cooperation, particularly around avoiding contact with the sick and deceased, was critical to stopping transmission.
Four neighboring countries, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Namibia, and Zambia, were placed on alert. Ryan said travel restrictions to Angola were not warranted at this time.
The virus spreads through contact with bodily fluids but can be contained with basic precautions. Experts are examining whether the outbreak took hold partly as a hospital-acquired infection, which could explain the high number of child victims. Foreign medical teams, equipment, and a specialized mobile laboratory have been deployed to Uige, about 300 kilometers north of Luanda. The United Nations launched a 3.5-million-dollar aid appeal to support the response.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in April 2005, in its own words.