At least nine people in southern Ethiopia have been infected with the deadly Marburg virus, a clinically similar cousin to Ebola, in the East African country’s first outbreak of the highly contagious disease, the World Health Organization said Friday. Ethiopia’s health ministry also confirmed the outbreak.
The WHO “is actively supporting Ethiopia to contain the outbreak and treat infected people, and supporting all efforts to address the potential of cross-border spread,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said in a post to X.
At least nine people in southern Ethiopia have been infected with the deadly Marburg virus, a clinically similar cousin to Ebola, in the East African country’s first outbreak of the highly contagious disease, the World Health Organization said Friday. Ethiopia’s health ministry also confirmed the outbreak.
The WHO “is actively supporting Ethiopia to contain the outbreak and treat infected people, and supporting all efforts to address the potential of cross-border spread,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, said in a post to X.
Marburg virus disease is a viral hemorrhagic fever that spreads between humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people such as blood, saliva or urine, as well as on surfaces and materials. From the same Filoviridae family as the Ebola virus, it was first identified in 1967 following outbreaks among laboratory workers in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany, and in Belgrade, Serbia. The virus, which crosses to humans through contact with wild animals, is named after the German city where the outbreak first occurred. Initial symptoms include fever, headache, chills and muscle aches, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Others may experience chest pain, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Patients may develop a non-itchy rash two to seven days after onset of symptoms, according to the WHO. Severe blood loss, hemorrhaging and multi-organ dysfunction can occur in severe cases, according to the CDC.
Deaths typically occur between eight and nine days after onset, preceded by severe blood loss and shock, according to the WHO. The disease has an average case fatality rate of roughly 50 percent, according to the WHO.
There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the Marburg virus. Patients receive supportive care.
Previous outbreaks have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, according to the WHO. Laboratory tests confirmed the virus is the same strain as the one reported in previous outbreaks across East Africa.
The virus is likely to have first jumped to people from bats. It has the potential to reemerge again and again, even when one outbreak has been contained.
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