This fatal disease cannot be treated: Check Marburg virus causes, symptoms and more
PremiumThe Marburg virus: The mortality rate is approximately 50% although it may be as high as 88 percent.
A fatal disease caused by the Marburg virus, which is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola, has been reported in Ghana. The African nation confirmed its first two cases in July. Oyewale Tomori, a virologist, was questioned by The Conversation Africa's Wale Fatade and Usifo Omozokpea about the disease's origin and prevention measures.
The mortality rate is approximately 50% although it may be as high as 88 percent or as low as 20%. This indicates that the infection is highly serious. Both of the Ghanaian affected individuals perished.
The Marburg virus: What is it and where did it come from?
The Marburg Virus Disease (MVD), formerly known as Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever, is brought on by the Marburg virus. The virus, related to the Ebola virus, infects people and causes a severe viral hemorrhagic fever with an average case fatality rate of about 50%. In different epidemics, it has ranged from 24 to 88 percent depending on the virus type and case care.
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It was initially recorded in 1967 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and a German town called Marburg (now Serbia). Both cities experienced outbreaks at the same time. It originated from monkeys that were brought into Marburg from Uganda for laboratory research. As a result of handling monkey materials (blood, tissues, and cells), the laboratory employees became infected. Seven deaths were reported among the 31 cases connected to these outbreaks.
Additional instances have been documented worldwide after the first epidemics. The majority were in Africa, including in Kenya, South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, and more recently in Guinea and Ghana. Serological research has also shown signs of previous Marburg virus infections in Nigeria.
Although the virus's host or reservoir has not been definitively confirmed, fruit bats have been linked to the virus. Two separate cases were recorded in 2008 in tourists who had visited a cave in Uganda that was home to Rousettus bat colonies.
How does it spread?
Contact with substances (fluids, blood, tissues, and cells) from an infected host or reservoir is required for transmission. When monkeys from Uganda were brought into Marburg, it is apparent that laboratory workers who came into contact with the monkeys' tissues and blood became infected.
Direct contact (via broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, saliva, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected people, as well as with surfaces and materials, can also result in human-to-human transmission. This includes clothing and bedding that has been polluted with these substances. But there is still a lot that is yet to be understood. For instance, whether human illnesses can be brought on by contact with bat poop in caves.
Marburg virus symptoms
The sickness manifests suddenly after an incubation period of two to 21 days and is accompanied by fever, chills, headache, and myalgia.
A maculopapular rash, which is most noticeable on the trunk (chest, back, and stomach), may start to emerge about the fifth day after the commencement of symptoms. It's possible to experience nausea, vomiting, chest pain, a sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhoea. Jaundice, pancreatic inflammation, extreme weight loss, disorientation, shock, liver failure, extensive bleeding, and multiple organ malfunction are among the symptoms that worsen over time.
Marburg virus treatment
The chances of survival at the moment are improved by early supportive care, rehydration, and symptomatic therapy. However, the present medical availability does not offer any treatment of the disease.
What can people do to protect themselves?
Avoid exposure to the virus as much as possible, and protect against discharges from infected people.
Also, because of the similarities in the symptoms of many hemorrhagic fever diseases, especially during the early stages, there is a need for reliable laboratory confirmation of a case of Marburg virus infection. And once that is done – as with Ebola – the person must immediately be isolated and avoid contact with other people.
How to stop the spread
It's time to be vigilant because cases have been reported in Ghana. A proper screening is required. At the ports of entry, arrivals from Ghana and other West African nations must be inspected. To increase and strengthen the capacity for a more accurate diagnosis of viral hemorrhagic fever infections, nations must improve disease monitoring and laboratory diagnostics.
(With agency inputs)
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