Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Angolan and Congolese analyzed Ebola epidemic

Luanda, Jan 20 (PL) Government of Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) reviewed the action against the Ebola epidemic that hit the Congolese province of Kasai Occidental.

The region bordering the northern Angolan suffered an outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever threatens to spread to other parts of the neighboring country.

The specialists of the two nations discussed items related to biosecurity epidemiological control of migration flows and monitoring.

Quiala Godi, provincial director of the Angolan Ministry of Health in Uige, 250 kilometers northeast of here, said there has been no case in Congolese towns bordering the demarcation.

However, he added, was made to explain the surveillance of citizens and biosecurity measures need to alert the authorities if any suspected patient.

The researchers detected the first cases of the deadly disease in 1976 in populations of the DRC and Sudan.

Since that date there sporadic outbreaks, especially in Congolese territory.

Infection occurs through contact with any of the fluids of a patient. Its fatality rate is 50 to 90 percent and so far has not been an antidote.

The dubious statistics provided by the Congolese authorities realize that a dozen people died in recent months, while just over one hundred infected.

jf / arc

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