Man Dies From Ebola-like Marburg Virus In Uganda
Written by Editor
A 30-year-old hospital technician has died of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Kampala, the Ugandan government announced on Sunday.
Agency reports (AFP, Reuters and AP), quoted the authorities as saying the technician died in the Mengo hospital where he worked in the capital of the east African country on September 28, 11 days after falling ill.
Tests confirmed the presence of the disease two days later. He had started feeling unwell about 10 days earlier, and his condition kept deteriorating. He complained of headache, abdominal pain, vomiting blood and diarrhoea.
Samples were said to have been taken and tested at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, and results confirmed the man had the Marburg virus. Doctors said his brother, one of the people he came in contact with, has developed similar symptoms and has been quarantined in a group of 80 others, 60 of whom are health workers.
Those quarantined came into contact with the victim either in Kampala or his burial place in Kasese, a district in western Uganda bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Marburg has a shorter incubation period of 14 days, compared with Ebola’s 21. The current outbreak of Ebola, the deadliest on record so far, has killed more than 3,400 people in four West African countries.
Uganda has been hit by several outbreaks of Marburg and Ebola in the past, but it has contained the outbreaks quickly, limiting fatalities.
Its worst occurrence of hemorrhagic fever occurred in 2000, when 425 people contracted Ebola and more than half of them died. Like Ebola, the Marburg virus is transmitted via contact with bodily fluids and fatality rates range from 25 percent to 80 percent.
Uganda’s Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda said the government could deal with any outbreak. “Uganda has previously successfully handled similar situations of health threats involving hemorrhagic fevers,” he wrote on Twitter.
President Yoweri Museveni urged Ugandans to remain “calm but vigilant,” to avoid shaking hands, and to report “suspicious cases” of Marburg.
A Marburg outbreak in Uganda in October 2012 killed 10 people, about half of those who were confirmed infected with the disease. The Ebola epidemic that has been raging in West Africa has so far claimed almost 3,500 lives, with Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone worst hit.
Researchers announced in August that a drug developed by Canada’s Tekmira Pharmaceuticals helped monkeys survive the deadly Marburg infection in tests.
Written by Editor
A 30-year-old hospital technician has died of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Kampala, the Ugandan government announced on Sunday.
Agency reports (AFP, Reuters and AP), quoted the authorities as saying the technician died in the Mengo hospital where he worked in the capital of the east African country on September 28, 11 days after falling ill.
Tests confirmed the presence of the disease two days later. He had started feeling unwell about 10 days earlier, and his condition kept deteriorating. He complained of headache, abdominal pain, vomiting blood and diarrhoea.
Samples were said to have been taken and tested at the Uganda Virus Research Institute, and results confirmed the man had the Marburg virus. Doctors said his brother, one of the people he came in contact with, has developed similar symptoms and has been quarantined in a group of 80 others, 60 of whom are health workers.
Those quarantined came into contact with the victim either in Kampala or his burial place in Kasese, a district in western Uganda bordering the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Marburg has a shorter incubation period of 14 days, compared with Ebola’s 21. The current outbreak of Ebola, the deadliest on record so far, has killed more than 3,400 people in four West African countries.
Uganda has been hit by several outbreaks of Marburg and Ebola in the past, but it has contained the outbreaks quickly, limiting fatalities.
Its worst occurrence of hemorrhagic fever occurred in 2000, when 425 people contracted Ebola and more than half of them died. Like Ebola, the Marburg virus is transmitted via contact with bodily fluids and fatality rates range from 25 percent to 80 percent.
Uganda’s Prime Minister Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda said the government could deal with any outbreak. “Uganda has previously successfully handled similar situations of health threats involving hemorrhagic fevers,” he wrote on Twitter.
President Yoweri Museveni urged Ugandans to remain “calm but vigilant,” to avoid shaking hands, and to report “suspicious cases” of Marburg.
A Marburg outbreak in Uganda in October 2012 killed 10 people, about half of those who were confirmed infected with the disease. The Ebola epidemic that has been raging in West Africa has so far claimed almost 3,500 lives, with Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone worst hit.
Researchers announced in August that a drug developed by Canada’s Tekmira Pharmaceuticals helped monkeys survive the deadly Marburg infection in tests.
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