Outbreak of killer virus contained, say doctors

THE world's largest outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus has been contained and the worst of the epidemic is over, aid workers in Angola said yesterday.

Some 351 people have died but, largely due to a rapid reaction by teams from Medecins sans Frontieres and the World Health Organisation, fears that the disease would kill on a massive scale have proved unfounded.

"There is a decrease in the number of new cases, with only one confirmed last week and no other outbreaks in Angola," said Evelyn Depoortere from Medecins sans Frontieres at a London conference at the weekend.

Of 417 cases of the hugely infectious haemorrhagic fever presented since mid-October last year, most patients have died, said Ms Depoortere.

MSF teams working with officials from the WHO have managed to contain the spread of the disease, despite working in appalling conditions in Uige, a remote and ill-equipped province of northern Angola, a country ravaged by 27 years of civil war.

"There are still a few cases of Marburg, but nothing compared to the peak of the emergency," said Pierre-Francois Pirlot, the UN Resident Representative in Angola.

Pierre Rollin, a representative of the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC), said: "We are making good progress; we are optimistic but we cannot say that the epidemic is over."

Ben Jeffs, 33, a British doctor working with MSF teams in an isolation hospital in Uige, 160 miles north-east of the capital Luanda, described the hideous working conditions.

"Dealing with the worst Marburg outbreak in history is damned hard work.

"Wearing three layers of bio-security suit, the top layer of which is a rubber apron, in the hot humid tropics, has its disadvantages.

"After two hours you start to feel feverish because you are; your body cannot actually lose the heat, and your temperature can start to rise. When you do finally leave the ward, you can wring sweat out of your bottom layer of theatre greens.

"Emotionally it is hell," he continued in a report sent from Angola. "Almost all of our patients so far have died, although that is beginning to improve as a few people are starting to come in slightly better conditions.

"It is not a nice death, with frequent bleeding and multi-system failure. I don't think I will ever forget the expression on the last woman who died; a mixture between panic, terror and agony."

Now, however, with the help of MSF, the WHO and the Angolan Ministry of Health, the country has turned a corner.

The WHO explained that for the epidemic to be officially declared over, there should be no new cases of the Ebola-like haemorrhagic fever for 42 days - twice its maximum incubation period.

"Marburg is under control, in as much as things are organised, but before we declare victory we have to have this period of grace," said Mr Pirlot.