Rwanda said on Sunday it had started administering doses of the Marburg virus vaccine to try to combat the outbreak of the Ebola-like disease in the East African country, where it has killed 12 people so far.
“Vaccination starts immediately today,” Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana told a news conference in the capital, Kigali.
He specified that vaccinations would concern people “most at risk, the most exposed health professionals working in treatment centers, in hospitals, in intensive care units, in emergency services, but also close contacts of confirmed cases.
The country has already received shipments of vaccines, including from the Sabin Institute for Vaccines.
The first outbreak of viral hemorrhagic fever in Rwanda was detected in late September, and 46 cases and 12 deaths have been reported since then. The mortality rate for Marburg fever can be as high as 88%.
Symptoms of Marburg include high fever, severe headache and malaise within seven days of infection, then nausea, vomiting and severe diarrhea.
The disease is transmitted to humans by fruit bats and is then spread through contact with the bodily fluids of infected people. Neighboring Uganda has experienced several outbreaks in the past.
“We believe that with vaccines we have a powerful tool to stop the spread of this virus,” the minister said.
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