Rwanda says eight people have died from the highly contagious Marburg virus, which is similar to Ebola, days after the country declared an outbreak of a deadly hemorrhagic fever for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment. did.
Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates from fruit bats and spreads to people through close contact with an infected person’s body fluids or surfaces such as contaminated bed sheets. Without treatment, up to 88% of people with Marburg disease may die.
Rwanda, a landlocked country in central Africa, declared an outbreak on Friday and reported its first six deaths the next day.
Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana announced on Sunday night that 26 people have been confirmed to have the virus and eight of them have died.
The public is being urged to avoid physical contact to prevent the spread of infection. Approximately 300 people who came into contact with the confirmed infection have also been identified, and an unspecified number are being held in isolation facilities.
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Most of those affected are health workers in six of the country’s 30 districts.
1:52 WHO announces identification of 4 high-risk contacts following reports of Marburg virus infection in Guinea
“Marburg disease is a rare disease,” Nsanzimana told reporters. “We are ramping up contact tracing and testing to stop the spread of infection.”
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The minister said the cause of the illness had not yet been determined. He added that it could take between three days and three weeks for someone infected with the virus to show symptoms.
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Symptoms include fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and in some cases death due to extreme blood loss.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media platform
The U.S. Embassy in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, has asked its staff to work remotely and avoid visiting the office.
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According to WHO, outbreaks and isolated cases of Marburg disease have previously been recorded in Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana.
This rare virus was first identified in 1967 after simultaneous outbreaks of the disease in laboratories in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. Seven people who contracted the virus during the monkey study died.
Separately, Rwanda has so far reported six cases of smallpox, a disease caused by a virus related to smallpox but which usually causes milder symptoms. MPOX, formerly known as monkeypox because it was first identified in research monkeys, has also affected other African countries, making it a global health emergency, which the WHO has called a global health emergency.
Rwanda began its mpox vaccination campaign earlier this month, and more vaccines are expected to arrive in the country. Neighboring Congo has so far reported most of the mpox cases and is the epicenter of the emergency.
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