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Samples of the virus, responsible for hemorrhagic fever, were taken from Gueckedou’s patient. The statement added that the detection comes less than two months after Guinea declared the end of its latest Ebola outbreak.
On Monday, health officials attempted to find people who may have come in contact with the patient and launched a public education campaign to help curb the spread of the infection.
A first team of 10 WHO experts is on the ground to investigate the case and support Guinea’s emergency response.
“We applaud the vigilance and rapid investigative action of Guinean health workers. The potential for the spread of the Marburg virus means we have to stop it dead, ”Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said in a statement. the statement.
According to the WHO, the virus is transmitted to humans by fruit bats and can then be spread from human to human through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people or surfaces and materials contaminated with these fluids. There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments to treat Marburg; however, there are treatments for specific symptoms that can improve patients’ chances of survival.
“Case fatality rates have ranged from 24% to 88% in past epidemics depending on virus strain and case management,” the statement said. “In Africa, epidemic outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.”
The Marburg virus was first identified in 1967, when 31 people fell ill in Germany and Yugoslavia during an outbreak that was ultimately attributed to laboratory monkeys imported from Uganda. Since then, the virus has appeared sporadically, with only a dozen outbreaks recorded. Many of them only involved a single diagnosed case.
The Marburg virus causes symptoms similar to those of Ebola, starting with fever and weakness and often leading to internal or external bleeding, organ failure and death.
Samson Ntale contributed to this report.
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