The epidemic of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in the Angolan northern province of Uige has claimed 106 lives, including hospital personnel, according to local press reports on Friday.

Uige provincial Governor Antonio Bento Kangulo was quoted as saying on Thursday that the latest fatalities from the highly contagious disease included two nurses at Uige Central Hospital.

Two doctors, one Angolan, the other Vietnamese, had also been diagnosed with the disease, Governor Kangulo said.

A delegation from the Health Ministry and the World Health Organization left Luanda for Uige on Thursday morning to assess the situation and measures would be undertaken to combat the epidemic.

A WHO official said that the epidemic of Marburg disease which broke out in October appeared to be limited to the northern province that borders the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Angolan Deputy Health Minister Jose Van-Dunem said earlier that the Marburg disease is a viral infection originated from the green monkey, which clinically manifested by a hemorrhagic fever syndrome.

The transmission occurs through the contact with animals, infected human beings or through the semen during unprotected sex, as well as by way of body fluids handling.

Strong headaches, muscle pains, fever, vomits and diarrhea, among others, are the first symptoms of the disease, and after seven days patients can present hemorrhage through vomits, through the vagina, skin and eyes.

According to Van-Dunem, a task force to back up the one already working in Uige province has been set up in order to control the epidemic.

The disease first broke out in 1967 in laboratories in former Yugoslavia and Germany during the handling of infected tissues from monkeys.

Several African countries including South Africa and Kenya have also experienced the epidemic.

(Xinhua News Agency March 25, 2005)