Equatorial Guinea has recorded two new deaths linked to the Marburg virus disease, a hemorrhagic fever almost as deadly as Ebola, bringing the death toll to 11, according to a government statement broadcast on state television on Tuesday.
“The alert system received two days ago eight notifications, including two deaths, with symptoms of the disease”said in a press release Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba, Minister of Health, specifying that work is underway to “better measure the spread of the epidemic”. “Forty-eight contact cases have been recorded, four of whom have developed symptoms, and three are currently isolated in hospitals”, he added. Authorities did not specify the date of the deaths.
On February 13, Equatorial Guinea announced the death of nine people between January 7 and February 7 from the Marburg virus disease. it’s regarding the “first-ever Marburg virus outbreak” in this small African country located in the center-west of the continent, said the WHO, which called an emergency meeting on February 14.
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After declaring “health alert” in a neighboring province and district in the east, the authorities had put in place a containment plan in close collaboration with the WHO to deal with the epidemic. Only three people who presented with “mild symptoms” of the disease were then in isolation in a hospital in this sparsely populated and rural area, bordering Gabon and Cameroon, said the authorities.
The Marburg virus is transmitted to humans by fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, or with surfaces and materials. This highly virulent disease causes hemorrhagic fever with a case fatality rate of up to 88%.
There are no approved vaccines or antiviral treatments to treat the virus. However, supportive care – oral or intravenous rehydration – and treatment of specific symptoms increase the chances of survival. A range of potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies and drugs, as well as candidate vaccines with phase 1 data are being evaluated, according to the WHO.