The Centre for Health Protection has called on travellers to Africa to be vigilant against Marburg hemorrhagic fever following a report from the World Health Organisation that more than 230 cases have occurred in Angola recently, and 210 people have died from the disease.

The centre said Marburg hemorrhagic fever is a rare and severe disease that affects both people and primates, and it has a capacity to cause dramatic outbreaks with high fatality.

The virus, mainly found in East and Central Africa, can be spread through extremely close contact with a patient or his body fluid. The incubation period varies from three to 10 days.

Early symptoms include sudden onset of fever, severe headache, severe malaise and muscle ache, followed by severe watery diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain and severe bleeding from nose and gums within a few days. Death most often occurs eight to nine days later.

Close contact with a severely ill patient, during care at home or in hospital, and certain burial practices are common routes of infection. But casual contacts will not cause infection.

The centre is alerting doctors in Hong Kong about the disease, and has reminded them to maintain a high level of clinical suspicion and ask for a detailed travel history if patients have fallen sick during or after traveling to Africa.

The WHO currently does not recommend restrictions on travel to Angola but does advise precautions. People with existing medical conditions who might require hospitalisation should consider deferring non-essential travel to the country.

Advice for Angola travellers

The centre advises anyone travelling to the affected area to take the following measures:

*observe good personal hygiene;

*wash hands frequently with soap;

*avoid close contact with feverish or ill persons;

*avoid contact with sick or dead animals, especially primates;

*do not eat bushmeat of primates; and,

*monitor your health for 10 days after returning from the affected area and seek medical advice promptly if symptoms develop.