Eleven of the 36 people infected with the deadly Marburg virus in Rwanda have lost their lives in the past seven days, Rwandan health minister Dr Sabin Nsanzimana revealed on Thursday.
“We are organising to stop this outbreak before it affects other places in the country, region or beyond,” he said.
The health minister said all the contacts from “one cluster” in the capital Kigali have been traced, noting that 80% of those infected in Rwanda were healthcare providers. They treated the first patient with Marburg in the hospital ICU before the virus was detected.
“[Marburg] is a rare disease, but often fatal. The virus is aggressive and destroys the immune system, affecting multiple organs and we are losing the lives of our healthcare workers,” said Nsanzimana. There is no vaccine for it and limited treatment.
But Rwanda got its first good news since the first case was confirmed as “some patients have improved and five tested negative yesterday”, he said. “The epidemic is still at that size it can be controlled.”
Nsanzimana told journalists in an online weekly briefing organised by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, that a wide net had been spread to trace all potential contacts. “We have gone beyond close contacts and exhausted contacts at (about) 400,” he said.
“The case of the partner who travelled to Belgium happened after Marburg was confirmed. We have followed up with Belgium and that case was not symptomatic and the follow-up period has been completed.”
One case detected near the DRC border related to a healthcare provider who had been in contact with the main cluster then travelled north. “We followed and tested all contacts on the journey, about 30, and they are all negative so far,” said Nsanzimana.
We consider Marburg is potentially a regional issue as we do not know if the index case is from another country.
— Africa CDC director-general Jean Kaseya
“We are doing a thorough investigation into the index case,” he said, and samples from people, bats and primates are being collected for this.
Rwanda’s first ever case of the Marburg virus triggered an immediate response from the health systems and the country raised the alarm, said Nsanzimana. He thanked the Africa CDC for its rapid deployment of teams to help and other partners such as the WHO, CDC and UN for their support.
Africa CDC director-general Jean Kaseya said: “The first call I got was when [the minister] landed in Rwanda from New York and we started to deploy teams the next day.”
Kaseya said he will campaign aggressively for funds to control the continent’s outbreaks. The Africa CDC is also assisting with Mpox outbreaks in countries including Rwanda, the DRC and, in the last week, Ghana.
“There is no travel ban policy for Rwanda,” he said, adding he will be flying to Rwanda for meetings. “I’m going to cancel attendance at the World Health Summit in Berlin next week. My priority is Marburg and mpox,” he said.
“We consider Marburg is potentially a regional issue as we do not know if the index case is from another country. Last year cases were reported in Tanzania, he said.
In Rwanda, everyone with potential symptoms of Marburg — including high fever, headache and muscle pain — are being screened even though these symptoms are similar to malaria, which is common. “This is better than missing a case,” said Nsanzimana.
Rwanda has two response teams, one dealing with Marburg and the other with mpox. The country plans to start mpox vaccinations within the next few days, as does the DRC where the mpox outbreak is concentrated.
Nearly 90% of all 34,297 Mpox cases, and 99.5% of deaths reported on the continent are in Central Africa. By Thursday, 866 deaths had been reported and 6,800 mpox cases confirmed.
Southern Africa has 25 confirmed cases of mpox, all in South Africa. The National Institute for Communicable Diseases has reported that Gauteng had 12 cases, KwaZulu-Natal 11 and the Western Cape two.
“The best way to end any outbreak is to work togetherThe faster we act, the more lives we save,” Nsanzimana said.
