Only one case of the Marburg virus has been detected so far in Guinea, but the WHO insisted on Friday in Geneva on the importance of monitoring the some 150 contact cases who are in the
"critical"
incubation period.
Guinea's health authorities said at a press conference in Conakry that one of these cases was missing, but were confident that they would find him and have minimized the health risks of this defection. .
Read also: Guinea: first case of the Marburg virus in West Africa
West Africa recorded its very first case of the Marburg virus in Guinea in early August, a slightly less deadly cousin of the Ebola virus, for which there is no vaccine or treatment and which manifests as an acute fever accompanied by internal and external bleeding resulting in death in 50% of cases on average.
The virus, transmitted by bats, was discovered in samples taken from a man who died on August 2 in the prefecture of Guéckédou (South), in a village located in a forest region near the borders of Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Her symptoms appeared on July 25, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
"So far, there have been no other cases from Marburg since the index case which was confirmed on August 9,"
said a spokesperson for the health agency in Geneva, Fadela Chaib. So far some 150 contact cases have been identified and placed in isolation. The incubation period (the time between infection and the onset of symptoms) ranges from two to 21 days.
“We have entered the critical period when anyone exposed to the virus is most likely to develop symptoms. Surveillance is therefore particularly important at this time and the teams are monitoring contacts twice a day, ”
explained Fadela Chaib.
"Screening of suspected cases is also underway"
while
“Efforts continue to locate people who may have been in contact with the
deceased
patient,”
she said.
Cross-border surveillance has been strengthened.
The director of the Guinean health agency, Sakoba Keita, told Conakry that the man who died of the virus seemed to live in a relatively isolated way and that no case had yet occurred in his close entourage.
"We are very confident that the 21 days - we have 10 days left, it's the 23rd - may arrive (without us having) a case"
, he said. Guinea was one of the countries most affected by the Ebola epidemic which killed thousands of people in West Africa between the end of 2013 and 2016. In 2021, it experienced a resurgence of this disease which has killed 12 people and was declared complete in June. Each time, the disease left forest Guinea where the Marburg virus was detected. Case fatality rates have ranged from 24% to 88% in previous outbreaks of Marburg virus, depending on the strain of virus and case management.