[It might… because we have so many illegal blacks fleeing from “paradise” in the rest of black Africa… they are fleeing from the hell they created for themselves. Jan]

By Shaun Smillie, Tabby Moyo and Agencies

Namibia has become the first of Angola’s neighbours to go on full alert after a warning by world health authorities that the deadly Marburg fever could spread to the rest of southern Africa.

The latest outbreak has already killed 193 people and infected 218 in Angola’s Uige province.

“At this point there is no reason to be alarmed: the disease is not easily transmitted,” said the spokesperson for the department of health, Solly Mabotha.

South Africa has begun to implement the few precautions it can take
But South Africa has begun to implement the few precautions it can take against the disease, whose origins are still unknown, for which there is no vaccine and which on this occasion has claimed far more lives in less time than previous outbreaks.

Life histories are being noted down and vigilance has been increased at all points of entry into South Africa. These measures are South Africa’s first line of defence.

“There is a concern of an outbreak in South Africa, as there is a lot of travel between Angola and South Africa,” said Dr Lucille Blumberg, of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

But, when it comes to screening people entering South Africa, health officials admit that to test everyone for the disease would be too time-consuming and costly.

“We can’t take blood from everyone. What we need to do is exclude people and the best way to do this is to take a detailed history,” said Dr Bonnie Maloba, director of communicable disease control at the Department of Health.

Through a detailed history, Maloba said it would be possible to ascertain whether someone had been in an area where there was a high risk of contracting the disease.

“We would also be looking to see if the person had been in hospital, particularly in Luanda, as we know that several Marburg virus sufferers have been admitted to hospitals there,” she added.

Mabotha said his department had identified isolation areas in all provinces where patients infected with the Marburg virus could be taken and isolated for specialised medical treatment.

As yet, South Africa has reported no confirmed cases of the virus. There was one suspected case in the Eastern Cape, where a 50-year-old man died after experiencing Marburg-like symptoms.

The man apparently travelled back to South Africa from Luanda about three weeks ago. The department of health is still awaiting postmortem results, although some doctors have suggested he may have died from malaria.

At the weekend, Namibia’s health minister, Richard Kamwi, warned Namibians not to travel to Angola. He said that, although no case of the Ebola-like fever had been reported in Namibia, the country was vulnerable because of the large number of people crossing the Angolan border daily.

The minister said he had been told of a suspected Marburg case at Engela in Owambo province and was awaiting the results of lab tests.

In Uige, the World Health Organisation has resumed operations after suspending work last week when residents attacked its teams, the WHO said on Sunday.

Residents in Uige province were afraid that WHO teams were spreading – instead of helping to contain – the virus, said WHO’s spokesperson in Angola, Dave Daigle.

“We’re doing radio announcements, meeting church leaders and local authorities, to reach out to people and not only explain to them what we’re doing but get their support,” Daigle said.

Meanwhile, Doctors Without Borders, an NGO that runs an isolation ward for virus victims at the hospital, has advised that the hospital be closed to stem the spread of the virus.

The organisation’s emergency co-ordinator in Uige, Monica de Castellarnau, who characterised the situation as “very worrying”, said that the recommendation stood.

“We have been talking to the health minister and making a strong recommendation that the hospital be shut down temporarily, until the outbreak is controlled,” Castellarnau said.

Several deaths ascribed to the virus have been reported in four other provinces, but the only confirmed Marburg deaths can be traced back to Uige. Two cases have been confirmed in Luanda, the Angolan capital, but no one suggests the virus has been transmitted there.

SA Professor Adriano Duse is to join the multinational team now trying to contain the outbreak in Uige province. Duse is the chief specialist at the National Health Laboratory Service.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on April 11, 2005

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>