Health workers at the Ebola treatment center in Kerry Town, Sierra Leone Save the Children UK (AP)
The government of Equatorial Guinea on Monday issued a health alert over an outbreak of Marburg virus disease that has killed nine people in mainland Kie Ntem province and near the border with Cameroon, Health Minister Mitoha said in a statement Ondo’o Akeyaba. In addition, there are 16 people who have been in contact with the deceased who are isolated in different hospitals, and to prevent the outbreak from spreading, the government has ordered 4,325 people to remain in home quarantine. Marburg hemorrhagic fever is an Ebola-like disease with a high lethality, also caused by a virus whose host is the fruit bat.
The outbreak was detected in Nsok Nsomo district of Kie Ntem province in early February, after several suspicious deaths in the previous weeks of people suffering from fever, general malaise, vomiting blood and diarrhea. This “unusual epidemiological situation”, according to the Ministry of Health itself, prompted the regional authorities to inform the central government on February 7, which set up a crisis committee composed of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) in Equatorial Guinea and drew up an initial contingency and emergency response plan , which set the limit on movements in and out of the outbreak-hit Nsok Nsomo district.
A team of health workers went to the affected area and collected samples from eight patients, which were sent to the Franceville Interdisciplinary Center for Medical Research in Gabon. All tested negative for both Ebola and Marburg. However, due to the deaths of other people, another eight samples were sent to the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, where one of them tested positive for Marburg. WHO Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, in a statement, assured that this virus is “highly contagious”. Thanks to the Equatorial Guinean authorities’ quick and decisive action in confirming the disease, emergency response can be accelerated quickly so that we can save lives and stop the virus as soon as possible.”
In addition to the nine who died and the 16 contacts admitted to hospital, of whom only two have mild symptoms, the government is keeping 21 people isolated in their homes on the grounds that they were “second-order contacts” of the deceased. The WHO has announced it will send experts to help health authorities deal with the outbreak, as well as laboratory gloves and personal protective equipment for about 500 health workers. The health warning covers both Kie Ntem province and Mongomo district in neighboring Wele Nzas province.
According to the WHO, it is a serious and often fatal disease with an average mortality rate of 50%, which can be as high as 88% depending on the virus strain and management of the outbreak. Although there is no specific treatment or vaccine for Marburg virus disease, rehydration and early treatment of symptoms have been shown to reduce mortality. This disease, caused by a virus from the same family as Ebola, was first detected in 1967 in the German cities of Marburg (hence the name) and Frankfurt, and in Belgrade (Serbia). These outbreaks were caused by laboratory work involving African green monkeys imported from Uganda.
Outbreaks of Marburg fever have so far occurred in Angola, Kenya, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and South Africa, although in the latter country by a person who had traveled to Zimbabwe. It is the first time Equatorial Guinea has experienced an outbreak of this disease. After the virus jumps from infected animals to humans or zoonosis, transmission between humans occurs through direct contact with fluids from infected people and surfaces contaminated with them. As with Ebola, unprotected handling of the corpses of the deceased is usually a source of infection.
Faced with the first reports of deaths in Equatorial Guinea, the neighboring republic of Cameroon decided last weekend to restrict movements between the two countries across its border, unaware at the time that it was an outbreak of Marburg fever. The restrictions were imposed “given the high risk of introducing this disease and to detect and respond to cases at an early stage,” Cameroon’s ministry said in a statement.