RWANDA: Marburg death toll reaches nine. 

Rwanda’s health ministry says nine people have died from the highly contagious Marburg virus, just four days after the east African nation announced the outbreak. The government urges people to avoid physical contact to help curb the spread.

The Minister of Health Sabin Nsanzimana said authorities are investigating the origin of the deadly hemorrhagic fever that the World Health Organization says has no authorized vaccine or treatment.  

In a statement on Sunday, the U.S. embassy in Kigali urged their staff to work remotely and avoid visiting offices. Most of the affected are healthcare workers in six out of 30 districts in the country.

“Marburg is a rare disease. We are intensifying contact tracing and testing to help stop the spread of the disease,” Nsanzimana told the media in Kigali on Sunday.

The minister said twenty-seven cases have been identified since the outbreak was confirmed last Friday. Patients have been isolated and are being treated. 

Three hundred people are known to have been exposed to the virus.

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The World Health Organization has said symptoms of Marburg include fever, muscle pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and in some cases, death through extreme blood loss.

The virus has a fatality rate of approximately 88%.

On Saturday, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), said on X that WHO is scaling up its efforts to prevent spread of the virus and will work with the government of Rwanda to protect people at risk.

Marburg, from the same virus family as Ebola, spreads to humans from fruit bats, and then to other people through contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals, WHO said.

Marburg outbreaks and individual cases have been reported in Equatorial Guinea, Congo, Angola, Tanzania, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana, according to the WHO.

The Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC) says it has developed comprehensive guidelines for the detection and management of Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers (VHFs) in response to the increased frequency of emerging and re-emerging diseases across Africa.

According to RBC, the guidelines focus on equipping health workers with the necessary knowledge, skills, and practices to safely prevent, prepare for, and respond to VHF outbreaks in both health facilities and the community.

A national risk assessment done last year in Rwanda ranked Marburg as “moderate.” Rwanda’s risk is  heightened due to its proximity with countries experiencing other VHF outbreaks, among them Burundi and DR Congo, where the Mpox pandemic is spreading at a higher rate than in other African countries, according to WHO.  

Marburg Virus (WHO)

Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg virus disease, which was initially detected in 1967 after simultaneous outbreaks in two cities in Germany – Marburg and Frankfurt; and in Belgrade, Serbia.

Marburg and Ebola viruses are both members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus). Though caused by different viruses, the two diseases are clinically similar. Both diseases are rare and have the capacity to cause outbreaks with high fatality rates.

Two original large outbreaks in Germany and Serbia were associated with laboratory work using African green monkeys imported from Uganda. 

Subsequently, outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, DR Congo, Kenya, South Africa (in a person with a recent travel history to Zimbabwe) and Uganda. 

In 2008, two independent cases were reported in travelers who had visited a cave inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies in Uganda.

Rwandan has restricted funeral sizes for victims of the Marburg virus in an effort to curb an outbreak of the highly contagious disease. Hospital visits have been suspended.