The World Health Organization (WHO) reports that eight individuals in Tanzania are suspected to have died from the Marburg virus, with one additional infection confirmed. This outbreak follows a recent Marburg outbreak in neighboring Rwanda, which resulted in 15 fatalities.
The virus, similar to Ebola, causes symptoms such as sudden fever, headache, vomiting, muscle pain, and abdominal pain, followed by severe bleeding and organ failure in later stages. While the global health risk is low, WHO considers the risk within Tanzania to be high.
The organization’s efforts include testing samples from two patients and conducting contact tracing. There is currently no treatment for Marburg, which can be contracted through handling or consuming infected wild animals.
It is transmissible between humans through bodily fluids like blood, saliva, and sweat, but not through coughing or sneezing, according to the RIVM. In Rwanda, people were vaccinated with an experimental vaccine in recent months.
The virus is named after the city of Marburg in Germany, where laboratory workers were infected in 1967 during research with test monkeys. The outbreak in Rwanda was the first recorded in the East African country and the third largest globally.
Larger outbreaks occurred near a Congolese gold mine between 1998 and 2000 (154 infections, 128 deaths) and in Angola from 2004 to 2005 (252 infections, 227 deaths).
Source: NOS