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No further cases have been confirmed by health workers monitoring the 170 high-risk contacts of the first patient, who was diagnosed after succumbing to the highly infectious hemorrhagic fever.
The outbreak came just two months after the country was declared Ebola-free following a brief outbreak earlier this year that killed 12 people.
“Today we can highlight the growing expertise in the response to epidemics in Guinea and the region which has saved lives, contained and prevented a spread of the Marburg virus,” said Matshidiso Moeti, regional director of the World Health Organization (WHO) for Africa.
“Without immediate and decisive action, highly infectious diseases like Marburg can easily get out of hand,” she said in a statement.
There have been 12 major epidemics of Marburg since 1967, mainly in southern and eastern Africa. According to the WHO, death rates have ranged from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management.
Transmission occurs through contact with infected bodily fluids and tissues. Symptoms include headache, vomiting blood, muscle pain, and bleeding from various openings.
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