Marburg virus: 237 deaths

Public health officials in Angola say the deadly &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/397/14361_bush.html ' target=_blank>Marburg virus is not out of control in northern Angola. According to the country's health ministry, there were 261 cases and 237 deaths as of Monday. The officials say they hope to know soon whether the disease has peaked.

Angola's health ministry says it is finding cases of Marburg virus in places other than the northern province of Uige, where it broke out. Cases have appeared in Luanda Province, in Cuanza Norte Province next to it, and in neighboring Zaire's Kabinda Province. But vice health minister Jose Van Dunem says all known cases are among those who have visited Uige and so far no transmission has occurred among people outside that area.

The vice-minister was among several public health officials who spoke from &to=http:// english.pravda.ru/world/2001/04/11/3492.html ' target=_blank>Luanda by video link to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

The lack of Marburg transmission outside Uige is one sign giving officials hope that the outbreak can be contained. One of the U.S. government experts participating in international control efforts in Angola, physician Tom Ksiazek of the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, says there are other hopeful conditions, tells VOA News. According to Reuters, the outbreak of Marburg, an Ebola-like hemorrhagic fever, has killed 221 people out of 243 infected in Uige, a province of about 500,000 people 300 km (190 miles) north of the capital Luanda, the World Health Organization says.