Tuesday, February 28, 2023 – 7:19 pm
Equatorial Guinea’s government said Tuesday that the country has recorded two new deaths linked to the Marburg virus, a deadly hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, bringing the death toll to 11.
“Two days ago, eight cases were notified to the alert system, including two deaths with symptoms of the disease,” Health Minister Mitoh Ondo Aikaba said in a statement.
He explained that “48 contacts were recorded, four of which showed symptoms, three were isolated in the hospital.”
On 13 February, Equatorial Guinea announced the registration of nine deaths between 7 January and 7 February due to Marburg virus disease.
And the World Health Organization, which convened an emergency meeting on February 14, announced that this is the “first Marburg virus epidemic” in this small African country located in the center-west of the continent.
A “health alert” has been issued in the province and the neighboring region in the east, and the authorities, in close cooperation with the World Health Organization, have developed a “quarantine plan” to combat the epidemic.
Marburg virus is transmitted to humans by bats and spreads between people through close contact with the body fluids of infected people or with surfaces and materials. This highly virulent disease causes hemorrhagic fever with a mortality rate of up to 88 percent.
