Death toll from Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda rises to twelve

MADRID, October 6 (EUROPE PRESS) –

The latest report published by the Rwandan Ministry of Health increases to twelve the number of people who have died from the Marburg virus, which has so far infected a total of 46 people in the country, of whom 29 are being treated. and five are already recovering, according to the Kigali Today newspaper.

Given this situation, Rwandan President Paul Kagame met with World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on the sidelines of the 19th Francophonie Summit in Paris to discuss follow-up and joint containment of Marburg virus in the country, where the Ministry of Health declared an outbreak on September 27 disease caused by this hemorrhagic fever.

Marburg virus is transmitted to humans by bats living in fruit trees and has a fatality rate of 25 to 90 percent, depending on how quickly it is treated. Symptoms of infection include headache, bloody vomiting and muscle pain.

There are no vaccines or antiviral drugs approved to treat the virus, which is similar to Ebola. To increase the survival rate of infected people, supportive therapy (oral or intravenous rehydration) and symptomatic treatment are used.

In Africa, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea.

This Thursday, the WHO already pointed out some infection prevention measures “fundamental to stopping the spread of the (mentioned) disease”, while at the same time it announced the delivery – together with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) – of more than 500 clinical care kits , as well as infection prevention and control products as efforts to control the outbreak in Rwanda intensify.