Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Fides Service) - The Angolan health ministry is confident that an outbreak of Marburg which began in October in norther Angola and has taken over 350 lives is now coming to an end. The fact that no new cases have been registered in the last 45 days would seem to indicate that infection has stopped.
At the begining of May this year the number of new cases was reported to have dropped to almost zero. But the health authorities said this was incorrect because an epidemic can be said to be under control only when no new cases are reported for 21 days, the period of incubation for Marburg .
Most of the cases of Marburg virus were registered in and around Uige, 300 km north east of the capital Luanda.
Marburg is a fever similar to Ebola, and is transmitted in the same way through direct contact with the patient and body fluids.
Marburg causes dehydration with violent attacks of dysentery accompanied by haemorrhage due to intestinal laceration
