Fatal Virus In Angola Identified As Marburg

Scoop Report: The rare Marburg-Virus has killed dozens of people in the African republic of Angola. A laboratory in the United States has proven that the mysterious disease, to which at least 96 persons had fallen prey, was actually the Marburg Virus, said the Angolan vice health minister Joseph Van Dunem on Tuesday in Luanda.

The disease is rampant in the North Angolan region Uibe.

An infection with the Marburg Virus is – similar to the related Ebola disease – highly dangerous.

Every third person infected dies several days after the contagion. The symptoms of the disease are heavy internal bleeding, conditions of shock and delirium, and organ failure.

The disease was first identified in 1967 when 31 persons in Marburg, Frankfurt and Belgrade were infected via imported vervet monkeys from Uganda. The mode of transmission is widely unsettled.

Cases of the Marburg disease were reported from South Africa (1975) and from Kenya (1980 and 1987).

© Scoop Media