Wednesday, March 23, 2005

Angolans die from Ebola-like bug

In the last five months almost 100 Angolans have died from an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever. Similar in symptoms to its more famous cousin Ebola, this outbreak is being blamed on the Marburg virus. The symptoms include: vomiting, bloody discharge and fever. The Marburg virus was first isolated in 1967 and effects primates as well.

Angola's infrastructure is essentially destroyed and that makes it very hard to respond to any threat such as this. One saving grace of this family of disease is its lethality. It kills quickly thus limiting its spread.



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