Update On Marburg In Angola

I'm entering this post in this week's Tangled Bank.

The World Health Organization has reported that the death toll in Angola due to Marburg has risen to over 300. The high rate of death is due mainly to exposure at funerals and at home. WHO stated that "No cases have been reported outside Uige for the past five weeks." The people of Angola need to be educated on how to handle relatives who have contracted the disease. One way it is spreading is in "caring for loved ones in the final stages of illness or through washing and kissing bodies after death in accordance with local custom. The rare haemorrhagic fever is transmitted through bodily fluids including blood, sweat, saliva and tears. Most people usually die within days after massive bleeding."

The last Marburg outbreak was in the Congo in 1998-2000. 123 people had died.