Death toll climbs from Ebola-like fever

LUANDA. Angola (Reuters) -- The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday that Angola's Marburg fever outbreak was not over as the death toll from the disease climbed.

"We've seen new cases in new municipalities that don't have obvious links to earlier cases of Marburg. We are very concerned about the situation," WHO spokesperson Aphaluck Bhatiasevi told Reuters by phone from northern Uige province, the epicenter of the outbreak.

"We are trying to do as much tracing as possible. But some of the cases we have seen in the last 10 days don't have a clear link to previous cases," she said. "The outbreak is not over."

The death toll in the worst-recorded outbreak from the rare hemorrhagic fever has risen during the past 10 days to 292 -- out of the 336 known cases -- from 277, officials said.

Overcoming cultural barriers remains the biggest obstacle in the battle to contain the Ebola-like disease, Deputy Health Minister Jose Van Dunem said.

"We're working hard on social mobilization in communities in Uige, trying to motivate a change of behavior," Van Dunem told Reuters.

"We have some cultural problems. People think if they don't bathe the dead body then they are not properly putting them to rest," he said in an interview.

The fever is spread by bodily fluids like blood, saliva, tears and sweat. There is no cure.

Experts say protection is essential when dealing with corpses. Bodily fluid secretions increase after death, meaning the corpses of Marburg victims are highly contagious.

Some six traditional healers were among the dead, Van Dunem said. But others had started changing their behavior to protect themselves.

"We are reaching the people in the communities more than before. But it is very challenging because they have a strong culture," he said.

Van Dunem said two Marburg patients being cared for in the isolation unit in Uige hospital could be among the few people known to have survived the disease.

"We've had the two cases there for a week and we're hopeful they're not going to die," he said.

A total of 123 people died in a Marburg epidemic in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo in 1998-2000.