No end in sight to Angola's killer virus outbreak, says WHO

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2005

UIGE, Angola (AFP) — There is no end in sight to the outbreak of the Marburg virus in Angola, a top expert from the World Health Organisation said, citing "massive problems" in mobilising Angolans to fight the Ebola-like bug in this northern city.

"After four weeks, this epidemic is still peaking," said Pierre Formenty, the WHO's top specialist on new and dangerous diseases.

"It has not been stopped, because we have massive problems in mobilising the community against it," he told AFP as the death toll from the deadly haemorrhagic fever hit 210.

The length of the epidemic "really depends on the degree of the mobilisation by the Angolans, of the people itself, not only on the authorities... They don't realise that it could take months," Formenty said in an...