Rwanda’s health minister on Thursday said the outbreak of the often fatal Marburg virus in the country was at an end, with no new cases for nearly two weeks.
First announced in the small nation in the Great Lakes region of Africa in late September, Rwanda began vaccinating against Marburg in October.
“Since then we have been fighting this virus to make sure it’s controlled in Rwanda,” Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana told a press briefing of the Africa Union’s health watchdog, Africa CDC.
“I am very happy to report here today that it has been almost two weeks without a case and a month without a death related to Marburg disease,” he said, adding: “Marburg virus in Rwanda is over.”
“All patients being treated for this virus are being discharged… we are making very good progress.”
Africa CDC chief Jean Kaseya had said in October that the virus was under control.
He also said there was “almost zero risk” of the virus spreading across the borders of the landlocked country.
Marburg is transmitted to humans from fruit bats and belongs to the same family of viruses as Ebola.
With a fatality rate of up to 88 per cent, Marburg’s highly infectious haemorrhagic fever is often accompanied by bleeding and organ failure.
But the outbreak in Rwanda saw a far lower mortality rate of just under 23 per cent, with 15 deaths out of 66 Marburg patients, Nsanzimana said.
The health minister said authorities remain “vigilant” and are carrying out increased surveillance of fruit bats for the virus.
AFP
