Six dead from Marburg fever in Rwanda

(Keystone-SDA) There has been an outbreak of the highly contagious Marburg fever in Rwanda. So far, six patients have died from the viral disease, said Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana in a ministry statement distributed on the X platform.

A total of 26 cases have been confirmed. The 20 patients currently being treated are mostly medical staff and are isolated. Investigations are currently underway to determine the origin of the outbreak, it said. Prevention measures would be increased in all health facilities.

The Marburg virus causes fever with symptoms such as cramps, bloody vomiting and diarrhea – according to the World Health Organization (WHO), up to 88 percent of those affected die. The pathogen is named after the German city because laboratory workers there were infected with the previously unknown virus in test monkeys in 1967. People become infected through contact with the body fluids of infected people. It is suspected that the virus comes from flying foxes.