Equatorial Guinea confirms 8 new instances of Marburg virus

Equatorial Guinea has confirmed one other eight instances of the “extremely virulent” Marburg virus, a lethal hemorrhagic fever with no licensed vaccine or therapy.

The World Well being Group on Thursday mentioned that brings the nation’s complete variety of instances to 9 within the outbreak declared in mid-February.

There are two recognized present outbreaks of Marburg on the African continent. Tanzania this week introduced eight instances of Marburg, together with 5 deaths. One of many individuals killed was a well being employee.

“Our pathogen genomics workforce will sequence samples from each locations … and see if there’s a relationship between the present two outbreaks,” the appearing director of the Africa Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell, instructed journalists on Thursday. He mentioned outcomes must be recognized inside the week.

The WHO mentioned the brand new instances in Equatorial Guinea had been discovered within the provinces of Kie Ntem, Litoral and Centro Sur, all with borders with Cameroon and Gabon.

“The areas reporting instances are about 150 kilometers (93 miles) aside, suggesting wider transmission of the virus,” the United Nations company mentioned.

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in bats and spreads between individuals by way of shut contact with the bodily fluids of contaminated individuals, or surfaces, like contaminated mattress sheets. With out therapy, Marburg may be deadly in as much as 88% of people that fall sick with the illness.

Marburg outbreaks and particular person instances have previously been recorded in Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana, based on the WHO.

The uncommon virus was first recognized in 1967 after it triggered simultaneous outbreaks of illness in laboratories in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. Seven individuals died who had been uncovered to the virus whereas conducting analysis on monkeys.

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