Marburg Virus Hitting Angola Worse than Ebola – Prensa Latina Sounds like a place to avoid. Terrible news.
Luanda, Apr 10 (Prensa Latina) The Marburg virus, which has taken the life of 180 people in Angola is worse than Ebola, according Allarangar Yokouib from the UN World Health Organisation (WHO)
There’s been several Ebola epidemics in the region but none with such a high mortality rate as with Marburg, which causes haemorrhagic fever, the WHO expert said while sounding a call for help to put the outbreak under control.
The tally from the virus has jumped from 174 to 180 and has more than doubled in the last three weeks, now spreading into seven of the 18 provinces of this poor country of southern Africa
I’m getting concerned about this. You may remember Angola was a former colony of Portugal until 1974, and we still have a huge community of Angolans living in our country, many of which travel regularly to their native country. As public health is close to non-existant in Angola, and everything is done in such a amateurish way here in Portugal, I hope things don’t really get out of control…. Marburg, like Ebola has the potential to be a huge nightmare in densely populated areas such as european cities… It hasn’t been so far because most people that get it die before anybody gets to where they are.
For those who are unfamiliar with Marburg, I recommend the frightening nonfiction book “Hot Zone” by Richard Preston. For those who want a quicker intro to the story, read this review of the book:
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smithsonian/issues95/jun95/book_0695.html#zone
This book not only graphically elucidates the lethal effects of the virus, but also the scary story of the kind of inept procedures and policies that threaten –even today– to unleash a devastating epidemic right here in the USA. It is true. Marburg has already been in the USA, a stone’s throw from our nation’s capitol and could have easily escaped. This book exposes some of the many reasons we do not want government scientists playing with deadly bugs like anthrax and ebola.