The Marburg virus causing 9 deaths and a health alert was declared in Equatorial Guinea

Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba, Minister of Health of Equatorial Guineadeclared “the health alert for Marburg hemorrhagic fever in Kie-Ntem province and Mongomo district”. The decision was made following a report by the World Health Organization (WHO) which registered, in addition to the 9 deaths from Marburg, 16 suspected cases of people with symptoms similar to the virus.

At a press conference, the Minister of Health announced the “launch of the contingency plan to deal with the epidemic”, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO). The area where the cases are reported is in the eastern part of the country’s mainland, which also includes two main islands.

Last week, the Equatorial Guinean government reported that some possible cases of hemorrhagic fever were being investigated. The three people who suffered from “mild symptoms” were isolated and taken to a hospital in the area, on the border with Gabon and Cameroon, and “are progressing favourably,” explained the minister at a press conference published by the agency AFP.

What is hemorrhagic fever

Related to the Ebola virus and Lassa fever, the Marburg virus – which until now had been detected in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda – kills between a quarter and 90 percent of all people who get it. IS highly infectiouspresented by experts as the next big pandemic threat, and described by the WHO as a virus “prone to epidemics“.

The Marburg virus disease, also known by its symptoms as “hemorrhagic fever” is transmitted to humans by fruit bats and spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids from infected people, or surfaces and materials, according to the WHO.

Mortality rates have ranged from 24% to 88% in past epidemics, depending on viral strain and case management, organization excluded. In addition, they explained that it is the first epidemic of its kind in that small country in central Africa.

In the early stages of the disease, it is very difficult to distinguish it from other tropical diseases that cause high fever, such as ebola and malariabut as the days go by headaches intensify. As the days go by, the patients suffer deformations of their faces (he sinking of his eyes is one of its symptoms) and suffer from severe bleeding from multiple orifices, such as the nose, gums, eyes, and vagina.

The patients then die from a nervous system failure and the mortality rate is 50 percentaccording to estimates by the World Health Organization.

isolation and authoritarianism

As a consequence of the decision taken by the government of Equatorial Guinea, Minister Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba reported that “4,325 people are in quarantine in Nkie-Ntem.” According to the WHO, there are antecedents of waves with sporadic cases registered in western Africa, southern Africa, Angola, Kenya, Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Likewise, the minister explained that he had deployed “advanced medical teams” in the east of the country, one of the most closed and with one of the most authoritarian regimes in the world, led by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo for 43 years.

NT/ED