WHO urges Equatorial Guinea to report additional Marburg cases
The head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the organization is aware of additional Marburg virus cases in Equatorial Guinea and urged the country’s government to report them officially.
Symptoms of the disease include fever, fatigue, vomiting that contains traces of blood, and diarrhea. There are no approved vaccines or antivirals to treat it.
“The number of officially registered cases is still nine with seven deaths in three provinces,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said of the cases in Equatorial Guinea. “Because these three provinces are separated by 150 km, this indicates a wider spread of the virus.” .
He added, “The World Health Organization is aware of the existence of additional cases of infection, and we have asked the government to inform the organization officially of these cases.”
And Tedros added that there is also an outbreak of the virus in Tanzania, where the authorities reported eight infections in one area, including five deaths.
The organization said it is working with authorities and vaccine manufacturers to organize trials in affected countries.
