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After the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in monkeypox cases, the news of another virus can set off nerves around the world. The highly infectious Marburg virus has been reported in the West African country of Ghana this week, according to the World Health Organization.
Two unrelated people have died after testing positive for Marburg in the country’s southern Ashanti region, the WHO said on Sunday, confirming laboratory results from the Ghanaian health service. The highly infectious disease is similar to Ebola and has no vaccine.
The country’s health officials say they are working to isolate close contacts and mitigate the spread of the virus, and the WHO is marshalling resources and sending specialists to the country.
“Health authorities have responded quickly, anticipating the preparation for a possible outbreak. This is good because without immediate and decisive action, Marburg can easily spiral out of control,” said WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti.
Mortality rates from the disease can reach nearly 90 percent, according to the WHO.
Here’s what we know about the virus:
What is Marburg virus?
Marburg is a rare but highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever and belongs to the same family as Ebola, a better-known virus that has plagued West Africa for years.
Marburg virus is a “genetically unique zoonotic virus of the filovirus family,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “The six species of Ebola virus are the only other known members of the filovirus family.”
Mortality rates range from 24 percent to 88 percent, according to the WHO, depending on the strain of the virus and the quality of case management.
Marburg has probably been transmitted to people by African fruit bats as a result of prolonged exposure to people who work in mines and caves that have colonies of Rousettus bats. It is not an airborne disease.
Once someone is infected, the virus can easily spread between humans through direct contact with infected people’s bodily fluids, such as blood, saliva, or urine, as well as on surfaces and materials. Family members and healthcare workers remain the most vulnerable along with patients, and bodies can remain contagious at burial.
The first cases of the virus were identified in Europe in 1967. Two large outbreaks in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and in Belgrade, Serbia, led to the initial recognition of the disease. At least seven deaths were reported in that outbreak, with the first people infected being exposed to African green monkeys imported from Uganda or their tissue while conducting laboratory research, the CDC said.
Where has Marburg been detected?
The Ghana cases are only the second time Marburg has been detected in West Africa. The first reported case in the region was in Guinea last year. The virus can spread quickly. More than 90 contacts, including health workers and community members, are being monitored in Ghana. The WHO said it has also reached out to neighboring high-risk countries to put them on alert.
Cases of Marburg have previously been reported in other parts of Africa, including Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. The largest outbreak killed more than 200 people in Angola in 2005.
The virus is not known to originate in other continents, such as North America, and the CDC says cases outside of Africa are “rare.” In 2008, however, a Dutch woman died of Marburg’s disease after visiting Uganda. An American tourist also contracted the disease after a trip to Uganda in 2008, but recovered. Both travelers had visited a well-known cave inhabited by fruit bats in a national park.
The disease begins “abruptly”, according to the WHO, with high fever, severe headache and malaise. Muscle aches and cramps are also common features.
In Ghana, the two unrelated people who died experienced symptoms including diarrhoea, fever, nausea and vomiting. One case was that of a 26-year-old man who was admitted to a hospital on June 26 and died a day later. The second was a 51-year-old man who went to a hospital on June 28 and died the same day, the WHO said.
In fatal cases, death usually occurs eight to nine days after illness onset and is preceded by severe blood loss and hemorrhage, and multi-organ dysfunction.
The CDC has also noted that around day five, a non-itchy rash may occur on the chest, back, or stomach. The clinical diagnosis of Marburg “can be difficult,” he says, with many of the symptoms similar to other infectious diseases such as malaria or typhoid.
There are no approved vaccines or antiviral treatments to treat Marburg virus.
However, supportive care can improve survival rates, such as rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids, maintenance of oxygen levels, use of drug therapies, and treatment of specific symptoms as they arise. Some health experts say drugs similar to those used for Ebola could be effective.
Some “experimental treatments” for Marburg have been tested on animals but have never been tested on humans, the CDC said.
Virus samples collected from patients for study are an “extreme biohazard risk”, the WHO says, and laboratory tests must be carried out under “maximum biological containment conditions”.
The WHO said this week that it is supporting a “joint national investigation team” in Ghana and deploying its own experts to the country. It is also shipping personal protective equipment, beefing up disease surveillance and contact tracing in response to the handful of cases.
More details are likely to be shared at a WHO Africa online briefing scheduled for Thursday.
“It is concerning that the geographic range of this viral infection appears to have spread. This is a very serious infection with a high mortality rate,” international public health expert and Professor Jimmy Whitworth of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine told Mademoiselleosaki on Monday.
“It is important to try to understand how the virus got into the human population to cause this outbreak and stop more cases. At present, the risk of the outbreak spreading outside the Ashanti region of Ghana is very low,” he added.
Source: www.washingtonpost.com