Deadly Marburg virus spreads in Rwanda, without vaccination or treatment – Nationwide
Rwanda says eight people have died so far from the Ebola-like and highly contagious Marburg virus, days after the country declared an outbreak of a deadly hemorrhagic fever that has no approved drug or treatment.
Like Ebola, the Marburg virus comes from fruit bats and is spread between people through close contact with infected people’s bodily fluids or through surfaces, such as dirty bed sheets. Without treatment, Marburg can kill up to 88 percent of people who develop the disease.
Rwanda, a landlocked country in central Africa, announced the outbreak of the disease on Friday and a day later the first six deaths were reported.
So far 26 cases have been confirmed, and eight of the sick have died, said Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana on Sunday night.
The public has been urged to avoid physical contact to prevent the spread. About 300 people who came in contact with those who have been confirmed to have the virus have also been identified, while an unspecified number of them have been placed in isolation.
Most of those affected are health workers in six of the country’s 30 regions.
“Marburg is a rare disease,” Nsanzimana told reporters. “We are intensifying contact tracing and testing to help stop the spread.”
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The minister said the cause of the disease was not yet known. An infected person can take between three days and three weeks to show symptoms, he added.
Symptoms include fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting and, in some cases, death from severe blood loss.
The World Health Organization has been increasing its support and will work with the Rwandan authorities to help stop the spread, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Saturday on social media X.
The US Embassy in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, has urged its employees to work remotely and avoid visiting offices.
The Marburg outbreak and other cases have previously been recorded in Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana, according to the WHO.
This rare virus was first identified in 1967 after it caused simultaneous outbreaks in laboratories in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. Seven people have died who were exposed to the virus while doing research on monkeys.
Separately, Rwanda has so far reported six cases of mpox, a disease caused by a virus related to smallpox but usually causing milder symptoms. Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox because it first appeared in research monkeys, has affected many other African countries in what the WHO has called a global health emergency.
Rwanda launched the mpox vaccination campaign earlier this month, and more vaccines are expected to arrive in the country. Neighboring Congo has so far reported the majority of mpox cases, the origin of the emergency.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
