[afro-nets] Marburg virus disease in Angola, WHO Update

[Leela McCullough <leela@healthnet.org>]

Marburg virus disease in Angola, WHO Update
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http://www.who.int/csr/don/2005_03_29a/en/

30 March 2005

As of 29 March 2005, the Ministry of Health has reported a total
of 124 cases and 117 deaths in Cabinda, Luanda and Uige. All
these cases had originated in Uige Province. Ten of these cases
have been laboratory confirmed by the Centers for Disease Con-
trol and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, USA.

The team from WHO, including experts from the Inter-country pro-
gramme for southern Africa, the Regional Office for Africa
(AFRO) and from Headquarters, and partners in the Global Out-
break Alert and Response Network (GOARN) are supporting the Min-
istry of Health, Angola to strengthen active surveillance and
contact tracing.

Medicins sans Frontieres (Belgium, France, Holland and Spain)
are assisting with infection control and establishing isolation
facilities in Uige hospital. Experts from the Department of In-
fectious Diseases, Manchester, United Kingdom and Johannesburg
Hospital, South Africa are providing assistance in infection
control in Luanda, where training will be provided for health
care staff from all provinces in the country. The Canadian Na-
tional Microbiology Laboratory will be setting up a mobile labo-
ratory in Uige and CDC will be providing laboratory support in
Luanda. UNICEF is carrying out social mobilization activities,
raising awareness of the disease in the community and also pro-
viding additional logistic support and equipment.

Two travelers returning to Portugal from Angola were investi-
gated for possible Marburg virus infection and laboratory re-
sults were negative in tests performed by the Bernard-Nocht In-
stitute for Tropical Medicine, Hamburg, Germany, a WHO Reference
Laboratory.

______________________________________________
Leela McCullough, Ed.D.
Director of Information Services
SATELLIFE
30 California Street, Watertown, MA 02472, USA
Tel: 617-926-9400 Fax: 617-926-1212
mailto:leela@healthnet.org
http://www.healthnet.org