Ethiopia confirms 3 Marburg virus deaths in new outbreak

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (AP) — Ethiopia on Monday confirmed three deaths from the Marburg hemorrhagic virus that has been detected in an area neighboring South Sudan.

Health Minister Mekdes Daba said Ethiopia’s government, which declared a Marburg outbreak on Friday, had conducted tests in 17 suspected cases in the country’s south. The outbreak was reported in the Omo region.

The minister said there were no active cases but the government was taking preventive measures. A team from the World Health Organization and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been dispatched to support with testing and outbreak control.

South Sudan’s health ministry on Sunday issued a public health advisory to residents of four counties to wash their hands frequently and avoid contact with bodily fluids to prevent the spread of the virus. Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya last week called the outbreak a concern because South Sudan has a “fragile health system.”

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with contaminated surfaces, such as soiled bedsheets. Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88% of people who fall ill.

Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting and, in some cases, death from severe blood loss. There is no authorized vaccine or treatment for Marburg.

Marburg outbreaks and individual cases have in the past been recorded in Rwanda, Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana, according to WHO.