Marburg virus picks up in Uganda

kampala - In the east of Uganda, a fifty-year-old woman passed away from the dangerous marburg virus. Ten employees who took care of her at a hospital in Kapchorwa near the border with Kenya were placed under quarantine, said Health Minister Jane Aceng.

The woman had previously taken care of her brother, who died at the end of September. He had the same illnesses as she: fever, headache and severe bleeding.

The marburg virus resembles the ebola virus. It is spread by bats or eating meat of wild animals that are infected with it. Also contact with blood or other body juices of infected people can transmit the virus.

The World Health Organization (WHO) sends employees to Uganda to help local authorities. Often, Uganda's exploitation of marburg or ebola bursts quickly, but in 2000 a burst of ebola struck 425 people in the country, over half of whom died.