The Marburg outbreak announced in Rwanda two weeks ago has put the East African Community (EAC) on high alert, signalling a new round of preventive measures in the region.
On October 8, the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said 56 cases and 12 deaths had been reported from September 27, 2024.
By Thursday, the confirmed cases had reached 58, with 13 deaths and 12 recoveries, and 33 individuals still receiving treatment in isolation.
The virus has also been reported in Gatsibo and Nyagatare in eastern districts sharing borders with Tanzania and Uganda. In western Rwanda, positive cases have been reported in Rubavu at the border with DR Congo.
The Rwanda Development Board (RDB) on Tuesday announced the postponement of Kwita Izina 2024, its annual gorilla naming ceremony, which attracts foreigners and Rwandans alike from across the globe.
Kigali has secured 700 doses of a single-dose vaccine developed at the National Institutes of Health Vaccine Research Centre, which is currently being deployed prioritising frontline healthcare workers.
Pharmaceutical companies such as Gilead and Mapp Biopharmaceuticals have also donated doses of experimental treatments, including Remdesivir and the monoclonal antibody MBP-091.
Marburg vaccines are still experimental, making it a trial-and-error exercise to contain the spread.
As Rwanda mobilises resources to fight the disease, the concern is that neighbouring countries such as DRC and Burundi are grappling with their own public health challenges, including mpox.
Rwanda has approached the Ugandan government to deploy some of its health workers to help contain the spread of Marburg.
Ugandan Permanent Secretary Ministry of Health Dr Diana Atwine said the health workers left on Tuesday.
They will help in tracking illness, contacts, laboratory testing, disease detection and control along borders, and hospital infection, prevention and control.
Uganda remains on high alert, said Dr Henry Kyobe, an infectious diseases expert in the Ministry of Health.
In Kenya, the Health ministry said that the country was also on high alert.
Cabinet Secretary for Health Deborah Barasa said on Tuesday: "The ministry is instituting urgent measures to forestall importation of cases and subsequent transmission across the country."
Previous outbreaks
Outbreaks of Marburg have previously been reported DR Congo, Uganda, Tanzania, Angola, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, and South Africa, with the most recent reported in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania between February and June 2023. In Tanzania, the outbreak was in Kagera region, which borders Rwanda and Uganda.
Marburg is a highly infectious viral disease that can cause haemorrhagic fever and is clinically similar to Ebola. People are initially infected with the virus when they come into close contact with Rousettus bats, a type of fruit bat often found in mines or caves.
Marburg spreads between people via direct contact. The incubation period varies from two to 21 days. The signs include fever, severe headache, and severe malaise as well as diarrhoea, abdominal pain and cramping, nausea, and vomiting.
