GENEVA, April 1 -- The World Health Organization on Friday played down the danger of an Ebola-like virus that has killed 127 people in Angola, including 12 health workers.
Although it is the deadliest recorded outbreak of the rare Marburg disease, WHO's spokeswoman, Fadela Chaib, said it could be controlled.
"Marburg is less severe than Ebola," she said, adding that an Ebola sufferer is capable of infecting about a dozen people but someone with Marburg could infect only about four others.
"So we certainly can control this disease if people sick with it are put in isolation and if we identify all their contacts," Chaib said.
WHO said Italian authorities had isolated nine people who came in contact with a sufferer in Angola, but none had shown symptoms of Marburg. No other details were released about the nine.
Like Ebola, which also has hit Africa, Marburg spreads through bodily fluids and can kill rapidly. There is no vaccine or cure.
Angola has recorded 132 cases, about three-quarters of them in children younger than 5, since the virus was identified there last week, Chaib said.
WHO, Angola's Health Ministry and the aid group Doctors Without Borders have sent medical teams to Uige to try to identify and isolate all sufferers, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was also sending experts.
