News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – A Ugandan miner who died in mid-July had Marburg hemorrhagic fever, and another worker at the same mine has a suspected case, the World Health Organization announced today.

The miner, aged 29, became ill on Jul 4, was hospitalized 3 days later, and died Jul 14, the WHO said. He had cared for a 21-year-old coworker who had fallen ill with similar symptoms on Jun 27 and was hospitalized but later recovered.

(CIDRAP News) – The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently unveiled its plan for developing and buying medical countermeasures against a range of biological, chemical, and other threats, with new anthrax and smallpox vaccines among the near-term priorities.

(CIDRAP News) – An experimental vaccine protected monkeys from the deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever virus even though they weren't vaccinated until after exposure, according to a report published in the April 29 issue of The Lancet.

(CIDRAP News) – After a harrowing year of trying to stop the spread of the lethal Marburg virus, Angola has declared itself free of Marburg hemorrhagic fever, according to news reports.

(CIDRAP News) - Marburg hemorrhagic fever in Angola has afflicted 374 people and killed 329 of them, an increase of six cases and six deaths since late July, the World Health Organization (WHO) said this week.

(CIDRAP News) – The latest report from the World Health Organization (WHO) on the Marburg hemorrhagic fever epidemic in Angola gives significantly lower numbers of cases and deaths than previous reports.

(CIDRAP News) – Efforts to contain an outbreak of Ebola hemorrhagic fever appear to be succeeding in the Republic of the Congo, but the longer-running Marburg fever outbreak in Angola is still claiming victims, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

(CIDRAP News) – The tally of Marburg hemorrhagic fever cases in Angola has reached 423, including 357 fatal ones, but the epidemic appears to be slowing, the World Health Organization (WHO) said today.

Today's numbers represent 24 new cases and 22 more deaths since the last WHO statement on May 27, when the agency reported 399 cases with 335 deaths.

(CIDRAP News) – A pair of vaccines created by a Canadian-based international team of researchers protected monkeys against the lethal Ebola and Marburg viruses, according to a new report in Nature Medicine.

(CIDRAP News) – The plot of the world's latest pneumonic plague outbreak echoes with history.

Like a 19th-century American gold rush, news of the discovery of diamonds in a remote northeastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in November 2004 sparked an influx of adventurers hoping to strike it rich.