Tanzania announced Friday, June 2, the end of the epidemic of Marburg virus, a cousin of Ebola, which also causes hemorrhagic fever. A statement that comes two months after the beginning of the contagions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
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In total, nine cases (eight confirmed and one probable) and six deaths were recorded during the epidemic that was declared on March 21, "said the WHO, before welcoming it: "The last confirmed case was negative in the second test of Marburg on April 19, which triggered the mandatory countdown of 42 days to declare the end of the epidemic."
A very dangerous pathogen
Marburg virus is a very dangerous pathogen that causes high fever often accompanied by hemorrhages affecting several organs and reducing the body's ability to function properly. It is part of the filovirus family, to which the Ebola virus also belongs, which has already caused several deadly epidemics in Africa. The natural host of Marburg virus is a fruit eating African bat, which carries it but does not get sick. The virus takes its name from the German city of Marburg, where it was first identified in 1967, in a laboratory where employees had been in contact with infected green monkeys imported from Uganda. Animals can transmit it to primates living near them, including humans. Intra-human transmission then occurs through blood contact or with other bodily fluids.
See alsoAn outbreak of Marburg fever in Equatorial Guinea worries WHO
According to the WHO, the case fatality rate of confirmed cases ranged from 24 to 88 percent (with an average of just under 50 percent) in previous outbreaks, depending on the strain of the virus and the treatment of the patients. There is currently no vaccine or antiviral treatment, but experimental treatments, including blood derivatives, immunotherapies and drug therapies, are being evaluated, WHO said. Twelve people also died of Marburg virus disease in Equatorial Guinea in an outbreak first reported on 7 January. Other outbreaks or isolated cases have been reported in the past in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya and South Africa.