LUANDA, March 30 (Xinhuanet) -- A total of 117 people have died ofthe epidemic of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Angola, according to local press reports on Wednesday

    "Between October 2004 and 28 March 2005, a total of 124 cases were recorded of whom 117 died," the World Health Organization said in a statement issued, citing the Angolan Ministry of Health.

    The statement was released at a meeting here on Tuesday betweenofficials of the WHO, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the non-governmental health organizations Medecins sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders).

    Medical teams are working in the northwestern province of Uige both to treat patients and to try avoiding the epidemic's spread to neighboring provinces, the report said.

    The epidemic broke out in October in Uige province and began rapidly spreading in February.

    A severe form of haemorrhagic fever akin to Ebola, the Marburg virus was first identified in 1967. It spreads on contact with thefluids the body produces in reaction to it, such as blood, urine, excrement, vomit and saliva.

    Several African countries including South Africa and Kenya havealso experienced the epidemic. Enditem