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Following the coronavirus pandemic and the rise in monkeypox cases, news of another virus could spark nerves worldwide. The highly infectious Marburg virus was reported this week in the West African country of Ghana, according to the World Health Organization.
Two unrelated people died after testing positive in Marburg in the southern Ashanti region of the country, the WHO said on Sunday, confirming the laboratory results of the Ghana health service. The highly infectious disease is similar to Ebola and has no vaccine.
Health officials in the country say they are working to isolate close contacts and mitigate the spread of the virus, and the WHO is gathering resources and sending specialists to the country.
“Health authorities have responded quickly and have begun to prepare for a possible outbreak. This is good because without immediate and decisive action, Marburg can be easily out of control,” the WHO regional director for Africa said. , Matshidiso Moeti.
According to the WHO, mortality rates from the disease can reach almost 90 percent.
Here’s what we know about the virus:
What is the 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 affected West Africa for years.
Marburg virus is a “zoonotic virus … genetically unique RNA in 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 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 from African fruit bats as a result of prolonged exposure of people working in mines and caves that have Rousettus bat colonies. It is not an airborne disease.
Once someone is infected, the virus can easily spread among humans through direct contact with the body fluids of infected people, such as blood, saliva, or urine, as well as surfaces and materials. Family members and health care workers remain the most vulnerable alongside patients, and bodies can remain contagious at burial.
The first cases of the virus were identified in Europe in 1967. Two major 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 the outbreak, and the first infected people had been exposed to African green monkeys imported from Uganda or their tissues while doing laboratory research, the CDC said.
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Where has Marburg been detected?
The cases in Ghana are only the second time Marburg has been detected in West Africa. The first case reported 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 contacted neighboring high-risk countries to alert them.
Cases of Marburg have previously been reported in other parts of Africa, such as 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 from 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 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 general malaise. Muscle aches and cramps are also common features.
In Ghana, the two unrelated people who died experienced symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting. One of the cases was 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 between eight and nine days after the onset of the disease and is preceded by severe blood loss and bleeding and multiorgan dysfunction.
The CDC has also noted that around day five, a rash that does not cause itching in the chest, back, or stomach may occur. Marburg’s clinical diagnosis “can be difficult,” he says, with many of the symptoms similar to other infectious diseases such as malaria or typhoid fever.
There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the 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 in animals, but have never been tested in humans, the CDC said.
Virus samples collected from patients for study are an “extreme risk of biological risk,” says the WHO, and laboratory tests should be performed under “maximum biological containment conditions.”
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The WHO said this week that it is supporting a “joint national research team” in Ghana and deploying its own experts in the country. He is also sending personal protective equipment, stepping up disease surveillance and locating contacts in response to the few cases.
More details are likely to be shared at a WHO online briefing in Africa scheduled for Thursday.
“It is a concern that the geographical scope of this viral infection seems to have spread. This is a very serious infection with a high mortality rate,” the international public health expert and professor told The Washington Post on Monday. Jimmy Whitworth of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
“It is important to try to understand how the virus entered the human population to cause this outbreak and stop any other case. Currently, the risk of the outbreak spreading outside the Ashanti region of Ghana is very low,” he added.