WHO Epi Report

Bob Sims · medicine forum addict Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 98

Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola - update 19

18 May 2005

As of 17 May, the Ministry of Health in Angola has reported 337 cases
of Marburg haemorrhagic fever. Of these cases, 311 were fatal. The vast
majority of cases have occurred in Uige Province, where 326 cases and
300 deaths have been reported. No cases have been reported outside Uige
for the past five weeks.

Infrastructures and protocols for controlling the outbreak are in place
and functioning well. The isolation unit at Uige's provincial hospital
is being used, infection control in the hospital has improved, and safe
burial practices are now being followed. Portable field laboratories
continue to provide rapid diagnostic support. A campaign to stop home
treatment of patients using unsafe injections has resulted in the
collection and safe disposal of a large number of needles and syringes.
The campaign, which has been supported by religious and community
leaders and volunteers from the local Red Cross, is thought to have
raised public awareness of the associated risks considerably.

Support from religious and community leaders has also allowed the work
of mobile surveillance teams to run more smoothly, increasing the
efficiency of case finding and contact tracing. However, some new cases
continue to be linked to exposure in homes and at funerals, indicating
that public understanding of the disease still needs to be improved.

As transmission of the virus requires close personal contact with an
ill or recently deceased patient, the risk to international travellers
to Angola is considered to be very low. WHO does not recommend any
restrictions on travel or trade to or from Angola.

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Ebola haemorrhagic fever in the Republic of the Congo

18 May 2005

As of 17 May, a total of 11 cases (1 laboratory-confirmed and 10
epidemiologically linked) including 9 deaths has been reported in
Etoumbi and Mbomo in Cuvette Ouest Region (see previous report). The
Centre International de Recherches Médicales de Franceville (CIRMF)
and the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), Gabon has
confirmed Ebola haemorrhagic fever in one sample.

A total of 81 contacts are being monitored in Etoumbi (6 Cool

and Mbomo
(13).

The Ministry of Health, the WHO Regional Office for Africa and
Médecins Sans Frontières-Holland are in the field, carrying out
surveillance, following up contacts and raising awareness about the
disease among the population in the affected districts.

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