‘Rwanda has Marburg virus under control’

Rwanda has controlled the outbreak of the rare Marburg virus, says the African public health agency Africa CDC. The African country reported the revolution the end of September. Thirteen people have now died from the virus.

Rwanda has taken measures to contain the virus, the CDC says. Health services carry out source and contact research. People who have been in contact with infected people are not allowed to leave the country.

The Marburg virus is rare, but highly contagious and deadly. The chance of death is very high. The virus is similar to Ebola and is accompanied by sudden fever, headache, vomiting, muscle pain and abdominal pain. At a later stage, there will be heavy bleeding and organ failure.

The Africa CDC is asking other countries to withdraw the measures they have taken to monitor Rwandans. For example, people from an African country are screened when they arrive in the United States. According to the Africa CDC, the chance of the virus spreading outside of Rwanda is almost non-existent.

There is no medicine against Marburg. Last week, Rwanda received 700 doses of one experimental vaccinewhich is specifically for care providers. About seventy percent of the people who got the virus work in health care.

Last week there was a fear of a case in Germany. From a sick train passenger it was thought that he was carrying the virus because he had been working as a medical student in Rwanda, but it was a false alarm.

The total number of confirmed cases is 58, of which twelve have recovered. The revolution is the third largest ever worldwide. There were only more victims in an epidemic around a Congolese gold mine between 1998 and 2000 and in a revolution in Angola in 2004 and 2005.