The director general of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, announced Thursday that they are preparing candidates for new vaccines to fight the Marburg virus, given the outbreak detected in Tanzania this week, with eight people. affected.
The WHO director-general confirmed that Tanzania reported its first known case of the Marburg virus on Tuesday. “So far, eight cases have been confirmed and more than 160 contacts have been identified that are being studied” by experts from the institution, reported the web portal of Health News.
According to the WHO, Tanzania was able to confirm the outbreak because the first samples were analyzed in a mobile laboratory that the Organization set up last year “to prepare for outbreaks of viral haemorrhagic fever.”
Tedros assured that, although there are no approved vaccines or therapies for Marburg, the WHO “is leading a project to evaluate candidate vaccines and therapies in the context of the outbreak” in Africa. He added that “developers are ready, clinical trial protocols are ready, as are experts and donors, once governments and researchers give the green light.”
“In the meantime, we are not defenseless, careful contact, tracing, isolation and supportive care are powerful tools to prevent transmission and save lives,” stressed the WHO director general.
OUTBREAK IN GUINEA
A month ago, Equatorial Guinea also reported an outbreak of the Marburg virus disease. “Since then, eight additional laboratory-confirmed cases have been reported, bringing the total to nine confirmed cases and 20 probable cases,” explained Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO has also deployed experts throughout Equatorial Guinea “to support the government’s response” to the Marburg outbreak. “The Marburg virus belongs to the same family of viruses as Ebola, which causes similar symptoms, is transmitted between humans in the same way, and, like Ebola, has a very high mortality,” he added.
