Progress reported on deadly virus

GENEVA – Medical experts are having some success countering an outbreak of a deadly Ebola-like virus in Angola, but it has yet to be brought fully under control, the U.N. health agency said Friday.

The rare Marburg virus has killed 174 people out of a total 200 cases, said Dr. Mike Ryan, director of alert and response operations for the World Health Organization.

“The situation right now in Angola is not under control yet,” Ryan told reporters in Geneva. “This is still a crisis, and a health crisis on a national level.”

The disease first appeared in the northern province of Uige in October, and Ryan said officials had since seen some success against the virus there. Several deaths attributed to Marburg have been reported in four other provinces, but all the victims had been in Uige.

Two cases have been confirmed in Angola’s capital, Luanda, but there has been no transmission of the virus there.