Ethiopia confirms first outbreak of Marburg virus after testing

Ethiopia confirmed its first outbreak of Marburg virus disease after sending samples from a cluster of suspected cases of viral haemorrhagic fever for testing earlier this week.

The virus is the same strain reported in previous outbreaks in other East African nations, the World Health Organisation said late Friday. Nine cases, including health workers, have been reported in Ethiopia’s southern region near South Sudan. The WHO and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said Ethiopia moved quickly to identify the virus and begin containment efforts.

Rwanda last year linked its first outbreak of the highly virulent disease to mining done in a cave inhabited by fruit bats. Once transmitted to humans, the often severe and even fatal illness spreads among people through direct contact with bodily fluids or via contaminated materials.

Initial symptoms include high fever, acute headache and muscle aches, and many patients develop intense bleeding within a week of onset. There is no approved cure, though different therapeutics have been used under emergency compassionate-care conditions.

Gilead Sciences Inc. supplied Rwanda with remdesivir, an antiviral medication tested during the 2018 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Read Also: Shah Rukh Khan gets a ₹4,000-crore commercial tower named after him in Dubai