Marburg could strengthen Angolan health system

Angola's battle against the world's deadliest outbreak of the Marburg virus is straining resources but may strengthen a health care system shattered by 27 years of civil war, a senior government official said.

The disease, which is related to Ebola, has claimed at least 156 lives.

But Deputy Health Minister Jose Van Dunem said the crisis was boosting Angola's medical infrastructure.

"It will help to reinforce the (health) system. We will have more skilled personnel, and an isolation area in Luanda for emergencies. We achieved this with this misfortune," he said in an interview late on Tuesday.

"The bill is very high. But we are creating some experience, new services and a reserve of skilled people in order to respond to the possibility of a future reemergence of this illness."

Health officials fighting the outbreak in the northern province of Uige were getting help from the army, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and aid groups including Medecins Sans Frontieres.

Eighty six percent of those infected have died.

The rare hemorrhagic fever is characterised by headaches, nausea, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. It is spread through close contact with bodily fluids including blood, saliva and semen.

Angola's health infrastructure is still in tatters three years after the end of its civil war, in which around a million people died. The country now has an average of only one doctor for every 13,000 people.

While hospitals in the capital Luanda have benefited from limited modernisation, the majority of the country's 13 million people still get their healthcare in clinics that are poorly stocked, with few trained medical staff.

BATTLE NOT YET WON

Van Dunem said despite the challenge the government was confident it would stamp out the virus - although it was too early to say when.

"I can assure you that soon we will stop the outbreak. I would like to tell you it will be over tomorrow, in a week," he said. "But maybe (it will take) weeks, because the health infrastructure in the field was very weak, so we will need some time yet to definitively solve the problem."

While efforts in Uige concentrated on searching for dead bodies to bury them safely, Van Dunem said cultural barriers remained a serious challenge. In some Angolan families, touching or embracing the corpse is a death ritual.

"If people go on paying attention to the dead without respecting our advice, our instructions, this will delay the stop of the outbreak. This is our main concern," he said.

Van Dunem insisted that Angola, not known for its transparency, was being completely open about the epidemic.