Twelve people have died in the Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda

Latest balance sheet published by the Ministry of Health Rwanda raised this Saturday to twelve number of people late Marburg virus, which infected to date, a total of 46 people in the country, of which 29 people are undergoing treatment, and five are already recovering, the Kigali Today newspaper reports.

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 measures and joint containment of Marburg virus in the country, where the Ministry of Health declared disease outbreak regarding this hemorrhagic fever on September 27th.

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

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

There were in Africa previous outbreaks and sporadic cases in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea.

WHO already reported this Thursday about some infection prevention measures “fundamental to stopping the spread of (the) disease,” while they reported the delivery—in collaboration with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)—of more than 500 clinical care kits and supplies for infection prevention and control. as efforts to control the outbreak intensify in Rwanda.