Angolan Marburg Outbreak Is Now The World's Worst

Reuters reports that with the death toll reaching 126 the outbreak of the Marburg virus in Angola has become the world's worst.

With 132 cases of the haemorrhagic fever recorded the mortality rate in the Angolan Outbreak is much worse than the 23 to 25 percent the CDC says is the usual mortality rate from Marburg. The fact that Angola suffered 27 years of civil war, leaving Angola's health system in "tatters," is the only explanation offered for the higher mortality rate.

India's Netindia123.com reports that The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned Zambia against the Marburg virus.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is dispatching at least nine scientists and staff to Angola to help combat the Marburg hemorrhagic fever:

The CDC team, mostly drawn from the agency's elite Special Pathogens group, will join about 30 other workers sent by the World Health Organization, Doctors Without Borders, and the Canadian, Chinese and South African governments to Luanda, Angola's capital, and Uige, a northeastern city at the center of the outbreak.

I don't understand why this didn't happen earlier. The CDC identified the outbreak as the Marburg virus early last week.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports that Townsend Peterson, a Kansas University professor of ecology and evolutionary biology predicted that Angola could be hit by the Marburg virus:

Townsend has worked for several years with a team of scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as well as other universities in trying to determine the source of Marburg and Ebola.

The predictive map he developed, published in the January 2004 issue of "Emerging Infectious Diseases," was based on climatic and animal data from the areas where Marburg has been found. He said many scientists questioned whether the map accurately predicted that the possible Marburg zone could stretch west into Angola.

"We got a little flack for that," he said.

Even so, he said he didn't expect to see another outbreak so soon after the 2000 outbreak in the Congo.

"It blew me away," he said. "It's within the prediction, but in 40 years we've only seen five outbreaks of Marburg. You don't expect to see another for a decade."

Most of the other outbreaks have been traced to caves or mines, Townsend said. If that remains the case, scientists can narrow the list of possible animal suspects to between 50 and 80.

California Yankee has been following this story since March 16th. You can find all the California Yankee posts about the Marburg outbreak here.

Comments

[Mr. Smith]

I'm not sure Special Pathogens gets involved that much in the control of an outbreak...my impression was that this group is involved in the characterization of an emerging/evolving pathogen. If that is true, is it possible that CDC is concerned about the strain of this Marburg virus? Changes in mortality usually indicate a genetic change in the virus, which could also result in a change in the ease of transmission. One thing about the Marburgs, they usually "burn themselves out" because the victims get sick(and die) so quickly that they can't associate with other humans fast enough to maintain the epidemic. Health care workers and their families are at greatest risk.

[Narmer]

Yep, this is a big deal, but maybe not as bad as bird flu.

Just to note, there is an excellent information source for Marburg and H5N1 (Avian flu) at http://www.recombinomics.com/whats_new.html

It is disturbing how poorly the WHO can and does handle these outbreaks. I think we'll be in for an interesting year.