What is the Marburg virus? WHO conducts emergency meeting after 'ghost-like' outbreak kills 9 people in Africa
MALABO, EQUATORIAL GUINEA: After the outbreak of the extremely dangerous Marburg virus in Africa, the World Health Organization (WHO) held an urgent meeting. The high-level meeting is said to have discussed the progress of vaccine and treatment candidates following the death of at least 9 people from the virus’ first-ever outbreak in Equatorial Guinea.
The Marburg virus is considered to be one of the most harmful and fatal viruses known to humans. According to WHO, it causes hemorrhagic fever with a fatality ratio as high as 88% and is far deadlier than the Ebola virus. Similar to Ebola, the virus is reportedly transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads in humans via direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people and surfaces such as bedsheets or clothes.
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'Marburg is highly infectious'
“Marburg is highly infectious. Thanks to the rapid and decisive action by the Equatorial Guinean authorities in confirming the disease, emergency response can get to full steam quickly so that we save lives and halt the virus as soon as possible,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, according to New York Post.
The WHO has claimed that the samples have been sent to a Senegal lab to determine the cause of the outbreak after an alert from a local health official last week. As of now, 9 people have been confirmed dead out of 16 suspected cases.
What are symptoms of Marburg virus?
A person infected by the virus will instantly develop painful symptoms and people typically develop severe hemorrhagic symptoms within a week. Patients have been described as showing “ghost-like” drawn features after days of infection along with deep-set eyes, expressionless faces, and extreme fatigue.
Fatal cases include blood in feces and vomit as well bleeding from the nose, gum, and vagina. To help curb the outbreak of the virus in Equatorial Guinea, the WHO has sent medical experts and protective equipment. Similar cases were also detected in the neighboring country, Cameroon, which forced the nation to restrict the movements.
“Surveillance in the field has been intensified,” said George Ameh, WHO’s country representative in Equatorial Guinea. “Contact tracing, as you know, is a cornerstone of the response. We have … redeployed the COVID-19 teams that were there for contact tracing and quickly retrofitted them to really help us out," as per the outlet.
WHO said that for sustaining properly against the deadly virus, sufficient care is required like rehydration with oral or IV fluids, as there is no definite cure or vaccine for the Marburg virus. “We’re working on a 30-day response plan where we should be able to quantify what are the exact measures and quantify what are the exact needs,” Ameh said.
In a 2004 outbreak in Angola, Marburg killed 90% of 252 infected people. There were two reported Marburg deaths in Ghana last year.
The virus was first detected in 1967 after it caused simultaneous outbreaks of disease in laboratories in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. A total of 7 people, who were conducting research on monkeys, reportedly died after getting exposed to the virus.