Luanda,04/1 - The number of people killed in Angola by the deadly hemorrhagic fever caused by the marburg virus has risen to 130 over the last 24 hours, out of the 137 cases so far recorded, said Thursday in Luanda the deputy Health minister, José Van-D=FAnem.

Speaking to journalists during a press conference, Jose Vandun explained that the three new cases occurred during the period in respect, one of them in Luanda, involving a citizen that had come from northern Uije province.

The two other cases were recorded in Uije and Kwanza-Norte province, where a teacher died after he had been in contact with infected corpse in Uije, the source said.

The deputy minister said all is being done to control the endemic, with teams engaged in active search for corpses or suspect cases.

He said the situation in Uije isolation ward has improved a lot, with the aid of the Medecin Sans Frontiere that is running it.

Jose Van-dunen recalled that very often the symptoms start very lightly and patients fail to realise they are infected. In any case, he added, patients should rush to the hospital.

"People that had been directly in contact with disease sufferers have to be observed with regularity and identified those that have had contact with them for at least 21days," he emphasized.

The official appealed to the population to continue learning about the disease and cooperate with the sanitary authorities informing on sick people who come from Uije or accommodate relatives, so that immediate action can be taken immediately.

The deputy minister supplied two telephone numbers enabling an immediate contact and facilitating the supply of handouts.

Marburg is a viral infection of the rhabdovirus group whose clinic manifestations are a hemorrhagic fever syndrome feared to originate from a type of green ape.

The transmission occurs either through contact with infected animals and human beings, or through the semen during sexual intercourse, as well as through the manipulation of body fluids.

Head and muscles pains, high fevers, indisposition, vomits, diarrhoeas, nausea and others are the symptoms of the first five to seven days, followed by hemorrhage through vomits, the vaginal canal, skin and eyes.

Until 1976, the world learned of three epidemics that hit laboratory researcher in Germany and Yugoslavia, during the manipulation of infected tissues of the apes.

The infection is reported to have entered those two countries through a lot of greyish apes imported from Uganda.

Following those three cases, another outbreak was recorded in South Africa, in 1975, that involved one primary case followed by a secondary.