By Zoe Eisenstein
Luanda - Angola launched a massive public information campaign on Tuesday in a bid to stamp out the killer Marburg virus as the toll from the worst outbreak yet topped 200.
Five TV and radio advertisements in the official language Portugese and the most widely spoken local languages were broadcast throughout the day on national media.
"The only way to control this epidemic is to stop the transmission. People need to adapt their behaviour, put in practice preventative measures," said Celso Malavoloneke, spokesperson for the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef).
He said 750 boy scouts and 450 health ministry volunteers were on standby to help distribute information pamphlets with suggestions of ways to halt the spread of the disease.
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At least 203 people have died from the rare haemmorhagic fever out of a total of 221 known cases and health officials say they have yet to get the epidemic under control.
Aid workers said on Monday that terrified families suspicious of health workers in protective gear looking like space suits were keeping the sick at home, thereby fanning the spread of the disease through communities at the epicentre of the outbreak in Uige province, north-east of the capital Luanda.
Unicef's Malavoloneke said rebuilding public trust in the health system - left in tatters after the end of a civil war lasting nearly three decades - was vital.
"This is a matter of trust. People become afraid of losing loved ones, they are afraid to let them go to hospital because they fear they won't see them again," he said.
There is no known cure for Marburg fever, meaning most treatment is purely palliative.
"People have also started losing trust in the quality of services offered by hospitals. Our colleagues working in the health sector also need to improve the quality of services," Malavoloneke said.
The first recorded outbreak of the disease was in the 1960s when scientific researchers working in the German town of Marburg contracted it from imported African monkeys.
The disease is spread through bodily fluids including sweat, blood and saliva, and syptoms include headaches, internal bleeding, nausea, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea.
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