LUANDA – An outbreak of the deadly Ebola-like Marburg virus has intensified in Angola, claiming more than 20 lives over the past three days and taking the nationwide toll to 150, heightening panic in the capital Luanda.
“In total we have registered 163 cases among them 150 dead,” Angola’s vice health minister Jose Van-Dunem told AFP late on Sunday. “A fourth person has died in Luanda, but all of them came from the province of Uige”, the epicentre of the outbreak about 300 kilometres north of the coastal capital.The official toll had stood at 130 on Friday.A combined statement by the World Health Organisation and the Angolan government meanwhile said 80 per cent of the cases involved children under 15.In Luanda, international experts were working round-the-clock to complete a special isolation ward to treat incoming cases from around the country.Volunteer workers at Americo Boa Vida hospital, the largest in Angola, are being kitted in special “Ebola suits” to work as cleaners and washers within the isolation ward, situated at the back of the hospital.”We are late, we must admit it, but we have experienced a lot of resistance from the medical staff, the patients and the inhabitants,” said Jacques Mambela-Mbela, the clinical director of Boa Vida, situated in the densely populated area of Marcal-Rangel about four kilometres from the city centre.Experts from Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) have been working since Tuesday to prepare the ward, which will be able to take up to 40 confirmed cases of Marburg, said Amsterdam-based MSF water sanitation specialist Marco Visser.Visser was putting workers through a rigorous training in their white protective suits, which covered them from head-to-toe, despite the humid weather and temperatures of over 30 degrees celsius.A severe haemorrhagic fever akin to Ebola, the Marburg virus spreads on contact with body fluids such as blood, urine, excrement, vomit and saliva.The Marburg outbreak has claimed a record number of lives in Angola, overtaking an earlier peak in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.- Nampa-AFP”A fourth person has died in Luanda, but all of them came from the province of Uige”, the epicentre of the outbreak about 300 kilometres north of the coastal capital.The official toll had stood at 130 on Friday.A combined statement by the World Health Organisation and the Angolan government meanwhile said 80 per cent of the cases involved children under 15.In Luanda, international experts were working round-the-clock to complete a special isolation ward to treat incoming cases from around the country.Volunteer workers at Americo Boa Vida hospital, the largest in Angola, are being kitted in special “Ebola suits” to work as cleaners and washers within the isolation ward, situated at the back of the hospital.”We are late, we must admit it, but we have experienced a lot of resistance from the medical staff, the patients and the inhabitants,” said Jacques Mambela-Mbela, the clinical director of Boa Vida, situated in the densely populated area of Marcal-Rangel about four kilometres from the city centre.Experts from Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) have been working since Tuesday to prepare the ward, which will be able to take up to 40 confirmed cases of Marburg, said Amsterdam-based MSF water sanitation specialist Marco Visser.Visser was putting workers through a rigorous training in their white protective suits, which covered them from head-to-toe, despite the humid weather and temperatures of over 30 degrees celsius. A severe haemorrhagic fever akin to Ebola, the Marburg virus spreads on contact with body fluids such as blood, urine, excrement, vomit and saliva.The Marburg outbreak has claimed a record number of lives in Angola, overtaking an earlier peak in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.- Nampa-AFP
