Guinea's first case of Marburg virus disease

Un científico con equipo de protección extrae muestras de sangre para analizar el virus de Marburgo, el 15 de agosto de 2007 en Uganda Christopher Black WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION / AFP / Archivos

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If the virus had been detected in animals, this is the first time that it has been confirmed in humans in West Africa, which put health authorities and the WHO on alert. 

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The case was detected in the prefecture of Guéckédou in the south of the country.

A 46-year-old man presented to the Koundou health center last week.

The nursing staff alerted by the symptoms and the deterioration of the patient's condition sounded the alarm.

The man eventually died.

The samples confirmed the presence of the Marburg virus. 

Measures have been taken to find people who could have been in contact with the patient, ensures the WHO: 155 people have been identified and are being monitored.

Awareness campaigns are underway.

The WHO team of experts supports local authorities in carrying out investigations, risk assessment, disease surveillance and screening ... 

The WHO representative in Guinea, Dr Georges Kizerbo, highlights the responsiveness to this case and the level of preparedness of the health authorities following the various Ebola epidemics.

The last episode was contained in less than four months.

The risk is for the moment local and immediate cross-border with Liberia and Sierra Leone, he assures. 

Hope for a vaccine thanks to new technologies developed against Covid-19

This disease was already known in South Africa, Angola, Kenya, Uganda or DRC. This is the first time that it has been confirmed in humans in West Africa. This virus is highly contagious with a case fatality rate ranging from 24 to 88%. It is highly virulent and in particular causes hemorrhagic fever. “

It belongs to the viral hemorrhagic fever viruses. There is no known treatment to date, but with new technologies which, thanks to Covid if one can say so, we have been made, perhaps we could find a vaccine more quickly,

 ”explains Doctor Hugues Cordel, infectious disease doctor at the Avicenne hospital in Bobigny, near Paris.

The Marburg virus had previously been detected in animal populations in Guinea.

For Doctor Georges Kizerbo, WHO representative in Guinea, this virus like others must be considered in the general ecosystem. 

There are areas of emergence, also linked to human activity, which increasingly encroaches on the ecosystem, on animal and plant habitats,” he

explains.

We know that there will be areas of emergence, encounters that can turn into passages of infectious germs from animal populations to human populations.

It is the whole

"one health" approach 

which wants us to harmonize animal health, human health and also environmental protection programs.

 "

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