Deadly Marburg Virus Reaches Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, with 17 Confirmed Cases
Date
3/27/2023 3:27:12 AM
(MENAFN) The deadly Marburg virus, which causes internal bleeding and kidney failure and can kill about nine in 10 of those infected, has reached Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea. A total of 17 cases have been confirmed in the two countries. The outbreak is being closely monitored by the World health Organisation (WHO), which is helping authorities track the 161 suspected contacts of the eight patients in Tanzania, five of whom have died. Nine people are confirmed to have contracted the virus in Equatorial Guinea, where the WHO has deployed assessment teams.
Although the US Centre for disease Control describes the virus as “extremely rare”, any detection of Marburg, first identified in Uganda in 1967, is of great concern because of the high mortality rate. Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of the African Union's Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, said on Thursday that his team would sequence samples from both places to see if there is a relationship between the current two outbreaks.
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