The WHO has now confirmed that at least 16 active cases are being monitored, and nine deaths seem to have been Marburg-related. Indeed, one additional challenge will be that while there are promising Marburg vaccine candidates undergoing early testing (Phase I), it may take a minute. . . to get the vaccine stock down to Guinea, and start an experimental in-situ ring vaccine program -- for contacts of contacts. It is every bit as lethal as Ebola to be certain, so this is cause for real concern.
Here's the latest, from WHO:
. . .Equatorial Guinea today confirmed its first-ever outbreak of Marburg virus disease. Preliminary tests carried out following the deaths of at least nine people in the country’s eastern Kie Ntem Province turned out positive on one of the samples for the viral haemorrhagic fever. . . .
Equatorial Guinean health authorities sent samples to the Institut Pasteur reference laboratory in Senegal with support from World Health Organization (WHO) to determine the cause of the disease after an alert by a district health official on 7 February. Of the eight samples tested at Institut Pasteur, one turned out positive for the virus. So far nine deaths and 16 suspected cases with symptoms including fever, fatigue and blood-stained vomit and diarrhoea have been reported. . . .
We need to have this vaccine readied, replicated and vetted, STAT (it was not developed at any for profit pharma concern, but a government affiliated institute) -- for just as we saw with the last Ebola outbreak in Uganda, in late 2022. . . the chances are good that at least one exposed contact of a contact. . . could easily end up on a plane out of Guinea. . . or may have already left the country. . . for parts unknown. Public health efforts again will need to be well coordinated, and swift here.
[Onward, still expecting that local Margate (UK) authorities will place the freezer back on the property, as soon as they weld the lid open, so no one may be trapped inside -- no public danger.]
नमस्ते
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