A leading health authority has brought together experts from around the world to discuss how to accelerate the development of vaccines and treatments for the Marburg virus. Members of the Marburg Virus Vaccine Consortium (MARVAC) have said it could be months before effective vaccines and treatments become available, as manufacturers must collect materials and conduct trials on specific groups of volunteers. . Daily Mail .
Virologists are increasingly concerned that the world is being caught off guard by a currently incurable infection that kills up to 88% of the people it infects. The virus, considered deadlier than its sibling Ebola, killed nine people in Equatorial Guinea in the first outbreak in the central African country. More than a dozen people are believed to be infected in Equatorial Guinea. tuesday night agency Reuters reports the deaths of two patients from Marburg in Cameroon. So, for the first time, a deadly virus crossed state borders.
This highly contagious pathogen, which causes some patients to bleed from the eyes, has been touted as the next big pandemic threat, and the WHO describes it as “epidemic-prone”. The WHO meeting expressed hope that the virus, which spreads through prolonged physical contact, will be quickly contained and brought under control before it causes a larger outbreak. “Field surveillance has been strengthened,” George Ameh, WHO representative in Equatorial Guinea, told the meeting. “As you know, contact tracing is the cornerstone of the response. We redeployed the COVID-19 teams that were there for contact tracing and quickly upgraded them to really help us,” Ameh added. .
Cases of Marburg’s disease are rare, with annual global numbers typically in the single digits. Marburg is initially transmitted to humans by fruit bats (bats) and spreads to humans through direct contact with bodily fluids, surfaces, and materials of infected people.
Symptoms come on suddenly and include severe headache, fever, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and vomiting. They gradually become heavier after a day or two. In its early stages, Marburg and the disease it causes are very difficult to distinguish from other tropical diseases such as Ebola and malaria. Infected patients become “ghosts” and often have sunken eyes and featureless faces.
