United States: Recently, Rwanda has declared to begin trials of the Marburg virus vaccine, a virus which has killed at least 12 people, most of them health workers in the country, Rwanda has said.
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A nonprofit organization, Sabin Vaccine Institute, which is based in the US, has provided seven hundred doses of the vaccine to the East African country.
Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said the vaccine would be targeted at those most at risk, like doctors and those who have come into contact with Marburg patients.
Symptoms of the disease, which is highly infectious, are similar to Ebola: fever, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting, and, in some cases, death due to extreme blood loss, BBC reported.
Rising cases of the disease
The health ministry here has so far recorded at least 46 cases. It is the first time the virus has been found in the country, and the source is still unknown.
“People should not worry” about their health, as said Nsanzimana since the vaccine had already been trialed in Kenya and Uganda.
However, there is no current plan to carry out tests on children in the Marburg vaccine trial, which has only been done in adults of 18 years and older. A further dose order was planned, the health minister said.
What does WHO state?
The Marburg virus has the potency to kill half the people who get infected on average, says the World Health Organization (WHO) in the country – most of them health workers.
Other outbreaks had caused 24 percent to 88 percent of those infected to die. In an effort to beat the virus, the BBC reported that funeral sizes have been restricted for victims of the virus in Rwanda.
Rwandan authorities have restricted funeral sizes for victims of the virus in an effort to curb it. Rwanda also plans to bring in these travel restrictions, along with temperature checks, passenger questionnaires, and hand sanitizing stations at departure points.
Marburg is passed to humans from fruit bats and then between people via contact with the bodily fluids of the infected person. In 2023, it also caught out neighboring Tanzania. In 2017, three people died in Uganda.