Health officials in Guinea have confirmed West Africa’s first case of Marburg, a highly infectious disease that is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said it needed to be “stopped in its tracks”.
Marburg virus disease is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through bodily fluids.
It is a severe, often fatal, illness that causes fever and bleeding disorders.
Samples taken from the patient in Guinea, who has since died, were tested in the country’s laboratories, and returned a positive result for Marburg.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, from the WHO, said the virus had the potential to spread far and wide.
Efforts are now under way to find people who may have been in contact with the man.
The systems in place in Guinea and neighbouring countries to control recent Ebola outbreaks are being taken up again in response to the Marburg virus.
Marburg virus disease is a highly virulent disease that causes haemorrhagic fever, with a fatality ratio of up to 88%. It is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease. Two large outbreaks that occurred simultaneously in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, led to the initial recognition of the disease.
The outbreak was associated with laboratory work using African green monkeys imported from Uganda. Subsequently, outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa (in a person with recent travel history to Zimbabwe) and Uganda. In 2008, two independent cases were reported in travellers who visited a cave inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies in Uganda.
Human infection with Marburg virus disease initially results from prolonged exposure to mines or caves inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies. Once an individual is infected with the virus, Marburg can spread through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.
Agencies
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