Guinea declares end of Marburg virus disease outbreak: WHO

Brazzaville (Congo), September 17: Guinea declared on Thursday the end of a Marburg virus disease outbreak after having recorded no new cases over the past 42 days, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a statement.
Guinea's health authorities, with WHO support, promptly mounted emergency response, deploying expert teams to carry out further investigations, step up disease surveillance, assess the risks and bolster community mobilization, testing, clinical care as well as infection prevention and control measures, said the WHO regional office for Africa, based in Brazzaville, capital of the Republic of the Congo.
"Without immediate and decisive action, highly infectious diseases like Marburg can easily get out of hand. Today we can point to the growing expertise in outbreak response in Guinea and the region that has saved lives, contained and averted a spill-over of the Marburg virus," said WHO Regional Director for Africa Matshidiso Moeti.
The virus was confirmed on Aug. 9 in Guinea, marking the first time the disease emerged in the country and in west Africa.
The disease, a highly infectious virus that causes haemorrhagic fever, was detected in southern Guinea, the same region where the initial cases of the February-June 2021 Ebola outbreak and the 2014-2016 west Africa Ebola outbreak were detected, according to the WHO.
Marburg, which is in the same family as Ebola, is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people and contaminated surfaces and materials.
In Africa, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
Source: Xinhua