Marburg: 5 Ugandan districts on high risk of outbreak

Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | The Ministry of Health has classified five districts in Uganda including Rakai, Kyotera, Isingiro, Kalangala and Ntungamo as high risk following an alert from the World Health Organisation of a suspected Marburg outbreak in neighbouring Tanzania.

Health Minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng said they had started public health communication and search for probable cases in those districts considering the high rates of cross-border movements to those areas.

Aceng who called for calm said the Public Health Laboratory of Tanzania had not yet confirmed if this was indeed Marburg but nine people were reported to have developed symptoms consistent with the viral hemorrhagic fever and eight of them lost their lives.

Later on, however, Tanzania’s Minister of Health Jenister Mhagama said in a statement that tests from samples earlier collected had come out negative for the disease.

While it’s now unclear what for sure claimed the eight lives, the country has previously reported an outbreak of Marburg in March 2023  which was  Tanzania’s first in the Kagera region. Strong measures enabled the outbreak to be controlled and declared over in less than two months.

Marburg virus disease is highly virulent and causes hemorrhagic fever. It belongs to the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease. Illness caused by the Marburg virus begins abruptly.

Experts say patients present with high fever, severe headache and severe malaise and they may develop severe hemorrhagic symptoms within seven days.

The virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials. Although several promising candidate medical countermeasures are currently undergoing clinical trials, there is no licensed treatment or vaccine for effective management or prevention of Marburg virus disease.

However,  the World Health Organisation recommends supportive care involving rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids and treatment of specific symptoms to improve survival.

In the African region, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa and Uganda.

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