Rwanda and WHO declare end to Marburg outbreak after no new cases reported

KIGALI – The World Health Organization and the government of Rwanda declared on Friday the outbreak in Rwanda of the Marburg fever similar to Ebola ended after no new cases were recorded in recent weeks.

The country declared for the first time outbreak on September 27 and reported a total of 15 deaths and 66 cases, with the majority of those affected being health workers who treated the first patients.

Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88% of people who suffer from the disease. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, diarrhea, vomiting, and in some cases, death from extreme blood loss.

There is no vaccine or approved treatment for Marburg, although Rwanda received hundreds of doses of a vaccine being tested in October.

An outbreak is considered over after 42 days (two 21-day virus incubation cycles) pass without new cases and all existing cases test negative.

Rwanda discharged the last patient from Marburg on November 8 and has reported no new confirmed cases since October 30.

However, WHO officials and Rwanda’s Health Minister Dr. Sabin Nzanzimana said Friday that risks remain and people should remain alert.

“We believe this is not completely over because we still face risks, especially from bats. “We continue to build new strategies, form new health teams and deploy advanced technologies to track their movements, understand their behavior and monitor who interacts with them,” the minister announced during a press conference in the capital, Kigali.

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus is believed to originate in fruit bats and spread between people through close contact with bodily fluids from infected people or with surfaces such as contaminated bed sheets.

“I thank the Rwandan government, its leaders and Rwandans in general for the strong response to achieve this success, but the battle continues,” said WHO Representative in Rwanda, Dr. Brain Chirombo.

Outbreaks and individual cases have been recorded in Marburg in the past TanzaniaEquatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana.

The virus was first identified in 1967 after it caused simultaneous outbreaks of the disease in laboratories in the German city of Marburg and Belgrade, in the former Yugoslavia. Seven people died after being exposed to the virus while conducting research with monkeys.