Marburg Disease | HealthCare Africa Magazine

Guinea declares end of Marburg virus disease outbreak

17 September 202117 September 2021 Editor

GUINEA – Having recorded zero cases of Marburg disease in the past 42 days, Guinea has declared the end of a Marburg virus outbreak announced on August 9th. The decision is informed by the Marburg monitoring protocol which dictates two incubation periods, or the time between infection and the onset of symptoms to last at least 42 days to be cleared for safety. Guinea’s index patient, and the only patient to date, marked the first time the disease emerged in the country and in West Africa. Marburg, a highly infectious…

WHO lauds Guinea’s swift action in detecting, curbing Marburg virus

3 September 20213 September 2021 Editor

GUINEA – WHO has commended the efforts put in by the Government of Guinea to detect and contain Marburg Disease. When a man in Temessadou M’Boket – a village in the densely forested southern Guinea region – died in early August 2021 after suffering fever, headache and haemorrhage, a medical team was quickly dispatched, and within hours of his death, laboratory analysis revealed that he had been ill with Marburg, a viral disease in the same family as Ebola. This was Guinea’s and West Africa’s first case of Marburg virus…

West Africa COVID-19 deaths surge amid Ebola, Marburg and Cholera outbreaks

19 August 202119 August 2021 Editor

CONGO – West Africa has recorded its highest number of COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic began as several countries grapple with outbreaks of cholera, Ebola Virus Disease and Marburg Virus Disease that threaten to further strain the already stretched emergency response capacity in the region. COVID-19 fatalities in West Africa over the past four weeks increased by 193% from 348 in the previous four weeks to 1018 in the past week even though the case fatality ratio stands at 1.4%—below the continental average of 2.5%. While new cases in West…

Ivory Coast reports first Ebola case in 25 years shortly after Guinea reported Marburg virus

16 August 202116 August 2021 Editor

COTE D’IVOIRE – Ebola has resurfaced in Ivory Coast for the first time in 25 years, health officials said, after an 18-year-old woman from neighboring Guinea tested positive for the hemorrhagic fever in the nation’s bustling commercial capital, Abidjan. It is the first Ebola case in a major West African city since 2016. It comes about two months after Guinea declared the end of an outbreak that killed 12 people this year in the country and as a third wave of the coronavirus pummels hospitals across the region. “It is…

Guinea confirms West Africa’s first ever case of deadly Marburg virus disease

10 August 202110 August 2021 Editor

GUINEA – Guinea Health authorities, in collaboration with the World Health Organization have confirmed a case of Marburg virus disease in the southern Gueckedou prefecture. This is the first time Marburg, a highly infectious disease that causes hemorrhagic fever, has been identified in the country, and in West Africa. Marburg, which is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola, has been detected less than two months after Guinea declared an end to an Ebola outbreak that erupted earlier this year. Samples taken from a now-deceased patient and…