LUANDA – The World Health Organisation (WHO) said yesterday there was no indication the deadly Ebola virus had crossed to Angola from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where it has killed 13 people.
‘The epidemic is in the province of Kasai in Western Congo. There is no evidence it has spread to Angola,’ Luis Sambo, WHO regional director for Africa, said after meeting with Angolan President Jose Eduardo dos Santos.
‘At this moment there is no reason to be alarmed.’
His comments came after Angola closed part of its northeastern border with the Congo where an Ebola outbreak, in addition to killing 13 people, is believed to have infected 40 more.
The incurable haemorrhagic fever, which has a mortality rate of 50-to-90 per cent, is transmitted by contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people.
In 2005, 329 people died in Angola’s northern town of Uige, close to the border with Congo from a cousin of Ebola known as the Marburg virus. – Nampa-Reuters
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