The three people who died from the disease had been in Ghana’s Ashanti region, the most populated part of the country. No cases of MVD have been detected outside Africa in the latest outbreak. However, patients have a chance of survival if specific symptoms are treated, and if supportive care is provided such as rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids.Ī range of treatments are being evaluated, including blood products, immune therapies, and drug therapies. There are no approved vaccines or antiviral treatments to treat MVD, according to the WHO. This includes whether infection can be caused by contact with bat droppings in caves. However, the fatality rate reached 88% in Angola during a 2005 outbreak, resulting in 329 deaths.Īccording to Prof Oyewale Tomori, the president of the Nigerian academy of science and a virology expert, there is a “great deal” we don’t yet know about MVD. At its lowest, the fatality rate was 24% during the first recorded outbreak in Germany. The average fatality rate for MVD is 50%. Given early symptoms are similar to many other tropical febrile diseases such as Ebola, malaria, and typhoid, the WHO says it can be difficult to identify. Fatal cases usually have some form of bleeding, often from multiple parts of the body. The virus can then cause haemorrhaging, organ failure, weight loss, jaundice, delirium and pancreas inflammation, according to the WHO. What are the symptoms?Īt its early stages, after an incubation period between two and 21 days, patients can present with headache, muscle aches, fever, and chills. Outbreaks since then have mostly been detected in eastern and southern Africa. The first outbreak was recorded in 1967 in Germany after staff working at a laboratory in the town of Marburg became infected with the disease from monkeys brought in for studies from Uganda. The virus is transmitted to people by fruit bats and can then spread from human to human via body fluids, including on contaminated clothing or surfaces, according to the WHO. Read more How does the Marburg virus spread?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |