Rome (Fides Service) - Marburg, a member of the Ebola family of viruses, has officially killed 117 people since October in the Uige province of Angola and a further seven people are infected. The first cases were reported in November 2004. The emergency is not over there is serious concern for the mortal danger and possible infection of medical staff. Among the victims Italian doctor Maria Bonino, a member of the CUAMM Voluntary group Doctors with Africa who worked in Uige provincial hospital.
In latest reports voluntary workers paint a desperate picture. The situation is critical and Uige health authorities are awaiting the arrival of a World Health Organisation team and a team of Doctors without Frontiers from Spain. Two more nurses at Uige hospital died of Marburg and there is growing fear among the staff. The situation in the isolation department is also precarious.
There is alarm also in neighbouring Republic of Congo and Democratic Congo where the authorities have set up strict control on borders with Angola and have started training doctors and nurses to treat the virus.
Marburg has no vaccine and no curative treatment and between 1998 and 2000 it killed 123 people in Angola. The virus was identified in 1967 in the Germany town of Marburg among laboratory workers who had been working with monkeys. Its early symptoms are diarrhoea, stomach pains, nausea and vomiting, which give way to bleeding and it is spread via contact with blood, urine or stools.
Marburg, Ebola and Lassa are latent viruses which emerge periodically in parts of equatorial Africa and they spread among animals. (AP) (30/3/2005 Agenzia Fides; Righe: 31; Parole:355)