Deadly Marburg virus spreading in Rwanda, without vaccine or treatment – National

Rwanda says eight people have died so far from the Ebola-like and highly contagious Marburg virus, just days after the country declared an outbreak of the deadly hemorrhagic fever for which there is no approved vaccine or treatment.

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated sheets. Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88 percent of people who become ill with the disease.

Rwanda, a landlocked country in central Africa, declared an outbreak on Friday and the first six deaths were reported a day later.

So far, 26 cases have been confirmed and eight of the sick people have died, Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said on Sunday evening.

The public has been urged to avoid physical contact to prevent the spread. About 300 people who came into contact with those confirmed to have the virus have also been identified, and an unspecified number of them have been placed in isolation facilities.

Most of those affected are health workers in six of the country’s 30 districts.

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The WHO says four high-risk contacts have been identified following a case of Marburg virus in Guinea

“Marburg is a rare disease,” Nsanzimana told journalists. “We are stepping up contact tracing and testing to help stop the spread.”

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The minister said the cause of the disease has not yet been determined. It could take three days to three weeks for a person infected with the virus to show symptoms, he added.

Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, diarrhea, vomiting and, in some cases, death from extreme blood loss.

The World Health Organization was scaling up its support and will work with Rwandan authorities to help stop the spread, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on social media platform X on Saturday.

The US embassy in the Rwandan capital Kigali has urged its staff to work remotely and avoid visiting offices.

According to the WHO, Marburg outbreaks and individual cases have been recorded in the past in Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana.

The rare virus was first identified in 1967 after it caused simultaneous outbreaks of disease in laboratories in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. Seven people died who were exposed to the virus during monkey research.

In addition, Rwanda has so far reported six cases of MPOX, a disease caused by a virus related to smallpox but typically causes milder symptoms. Mpox, formerly known as monkeypox because it was first seen in research monkeys, has also affected several other African countries in what the WHO has called a global health emergency.

Rwanda launched an MPOX vaccination campaign earlier this month and more vaccines are expected to arrive in the country. Neighboring Congo has reported the most cases of MPOX so far, the epicenter of the emergency.

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