Outbreak Status:
On March 21, 2023, Tanzanian and Guinean Ministry of Health announced the presence of new confirmed cases of Marburg disease.
On March 31, 2023, Gulf Center for Infection Control announced the number of cases in the Socialist Republic of Tanzania, which reached 8 cases, including 5 deaths. In Equatorial Guinea, there are 13 confirmed cases, 9 deaths, and twenty suspected cases.
About the disease:
Marburg disease is a viral disease classified from the family (Filovirus that causes hemorrhagic fever infects humans and some primitive organisms due to their biological nature receiving the Marburg hemorrhagic virus. Ebola disease also falls under the same family as Filovirus). The outbreak began in the cities of Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany in 1967 through laboratory experiments of so-called African green monkeys for the purpose of producing renal cell samples for their role in manufacturing the polio vaccine.
Method of transmission:
From human to human through contact with blood and body fluids produced from blood, whether through direct contact or through personal supplies. The World Health Organization has also stated cases of infection resulting from the burial ceremonies of the injured.
Incubation period of the disease: from two to twenty-one days
Initial symptoms: fever, headache, diarrhea, pain, and abdominal cramps.
Symptoms of the third day: nausea and vomiting.
Symptoms of the fifth to seventh day: severe and advanced hemorrhagic symptoms.
Usually, the patient dies because of severe hemorrhagic symptoms and as a result of organ failure on the eighth or ninth day.
Previous mortality rates for those infected with the disease: 88%
How to test Marburg virus:
Either by laboratory analysis (ELISA) antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) or reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).
WHO Recommendations:
Marburg disease is one of the diseases that needs epidemiological control and empowerment of the workforce to conduct epidemiological investigation and apply the principles of infection control within health facilities, health practitioners and the community, by educating the community about the seriousness of the disease, how to deal with the infected, and adherence to the necessary preventive measures.
The World Health Organization advises against traveling to the areas affected by the outbreak, as well as to neighboring areas, due to the weakness of international borders and the ease of illegal movement.