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Marburg claims 233 lives in Angola
 The Angolan Ministry of Health hasannounced that the death toll from the epidemic of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has jumped to 233 from a total of 255 cases recorded in Angola until Saturday. According to a press release issued here by the ministry on Sunday, all the reported cases of the Ebola-like disease had originated in the northwestern province of Uige, though patients have died elsewhere, including Luanda, Zaire, Malange, Kuangza Norte, Kuanza South and Cabinda provinces.For the last week or so, there has been 5 to 10 deaths a day. No sign of it going exponential but no sign of it slowing down either. Almost all the cases are concentrated in the Uige provincial capital, which is another mystery since its quite a small place (50K or 200K in different reports). At least 10 times as many people live out in the bush, but almost no cases seem to come from these areas. As I've pointed out before there will be at least as many close contacts and IMO a lot more in rural areas, but more casual contacts in an urban context. So, to argue its being spread by casual contact in an urban context yet not go exponential doesn't add up. There must be a local factor facilitating its spread in the provincial capital. Posted by: phil_b 2005-04-17 |
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