Marburg Virus Kills 20 in Equatorial Guinea
In Equatorial Guinea, the Marburg virus epidemic has claimed 20 lives in the past two months, according to the World Health Organization.
According to the government, the outbreak of hemorrhagic fever, which is nearly as deadly as Ebola, has now spread beyond the province of Kie-Ntem, where the first known deaths occurred in January, and has reached Bata, the economic capital of the small central African nation.
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, stated that the spread of Marburg is a signal to intensify response efforts to prevent a potential large-scale outbreak and loss of life.
The Equatorial Guinean government announced on its website that between March 11 and 20, eight new cases were identified, six of which were fatal, but did not provide a total death toll since the outbreak began.
The most recent official death toll was eleven on February 28.
According to the WHO, there have been 20 probable cases and 20 deaths in the country.
New cases have been reported in the provinces of Kie-Ntem in the east, Litoral in the west, and Centro Sur in the south, all of which border Cameroon and Gabon.
In three of Equatorial Guinea’s four mainland provinces, the epidemic has become a serious issue.
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In eastern Africa, Tanzania reported five deaths from the virus on Tuesday, while neighboring Uganda, which experienced its last outbreak in 2017, issued a “high alert”
In the coming days, the WHO will deploy additional epidemiology, logistics, health operations, and infection prevention and control specialists.
Additionally, the agency is assisting the health authorities in neighboring Cameroon and Gabon to improve their preparedness and response capabilities for outbreaks.
The Marburg virus is frequently accompanied by severe bleeding and organ failure.
It is a member of the so-called filovirus family, which also includes Ebola, which has caused multiple outbreaks in Africa in the past.
The suspected natural source of the Marburg virus is the African fruit bat, which carries the pathogen without becoming ill.
The virus derives its name from the German city of Marburg, where it was first identified in 1967, in a laboratory where workers had come into contact with infected Ugandan green monkeys.
The animals can transmit the virus to humans and other primates nearby, and human-to-human transmission occurs through contact with blood or other body fluids.
WHO reports that in previous outbreaks, fatality rates in confirmed cases ranged from 24% to 88%, depending on the virus strain and case management.
Currently, there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments, but the WHO is evaluating potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies, and drug therapies, as well as early candidate vaccines.
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