Victory over Ebola-Like Virus in Uganda!

Medic-ALL (14:11:2014)

In what can be regarded as another "win" for humans over the recently "more popular" viral haemorragic diseases, authorities in the east African country of Uganda reported that the country was now free of Marburg, a virus similar to Ebola in many respects, after no new cases had been reported for more than a month after a hospital worker died of the disease in the capital, Kampala. The declaration by the United Nations Health Agency comes after a 42-day Surveillance period.

The virus is transmitted through bodily fluids or by handling infected wild animals, Marburg starts with a severe headache followed by hemorrhaging and kills in 80 percent or more cases within about a week. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the virus.

A total of 197 people were in contact with the healthcare worker, but none of them were found to have been infected, Junior health minister Sarah Opendi told a news conference.

Opendi said 42 days was the minimum period of monitoring before an outbreak is declared contained, and there had been no new cases reported since the death in Kampala on Sept. 28.

"This implies that the Marburg outbreak in the country has been completely controlled," she said.

The worst outbreak of Ebola on record has killed nearly 5,000 people - all but a handful in West Africa's Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - since March.

Marburg disease virus (MVD) (formerly known as Marburg haemorrahagic fever) was first identified in the 1967 epidemics in Marburg (hence the name) and Frankfurt in Germany and Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia following importation of infected monkeys from Uganda.

Uganda, according to the Health Minister of the country, in 2012, endured an outbreak of Marburg that killed 9 of the 18 people infected

Ref: WHO Global Alert and Response

Medic-ALL.Inc 2014