Angola’s Marburg epidemic, which has claimed 155 lives, is not under control and the country urgently needs protective clothing for health workers battling the deadly virus, a U.N. official said on Tuesday.

With a mortality rate of 88 percent and nine new cases reported since Sunday - bringing the total to 175 - efforts to spread information about Marburg were more urgent than ever, Mario Ferrari, UNICEF chief in Angola told Reuters.

“I wouldn’t say (the situation) is under control. But I’m very confident, if I look at the mobilisation of technical resources, the brains that came here and the energy that the (health) ministry is putting into that fight, that things will be improved,” he said in an interview.

“It will take time, we must be patient, it is not in two or three days that we can eradicate this. But I’m confident that at the end there will be success,” he added.

The northern province of Uige has been the epicentre of the killer virus, for which there is no specific cure. But there are fears that it could spread to other provinces, including Luanda, home to more than four million people.

The rare hemorrhagic fever, which is related to Ebola, is characterised by headaches, nausea, Vomiting and bloody diarrhoea. It is spread through close contact with bodily fluids including saliva and perspiration.

NERVOUS CAPITAL

In the capital, residents have scrambled to take precautions, emptying store shelves of bleach to disinfect their homes and gossiping nervously about the disease.

“In a town like Luanda I understand that everybody is on alert because if the disease is implanted in Luanda, it would be quite complicated because of the size of the population, because there is a large movement of people,” Ferrari said.

“It’s important the population becomes aware of the existence of the virus and that they must protect themselves and that everybody realises we’re in front of something serious. But it’s not a reason to panic,” he said.

Ferrari said a nationwide public awareness campaign, led by the Ministry of Health and supported by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation (WHO), would target health workers at the frontline of the epidemic, as well as the population at large.

But he said there was still a serious shortfall in protective clothing for health workers, including goggles, face masks and headgear, and said that UNICEF and WHO were coordinating a “flash appeal” to mobilise more resources.

“Some materials are arriving this week but the need is huge and we need more,” Ferrari said.

“We need materials to protect people working in direct contact with patients who may be infected and also kits with essential drugs to make sure health centres in other provinces are prepared in case the virus spreads,” he added.

WHO said on Friday Angola’s outbreak was the deadliest ever of the disease. The previous record was 123 deaths among 149 cases during an epidemic from late 1998-2000 in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo. Most of the victims were gold miners.