Summary
A total of 212 people who were suspected to have contacts with the patients were so far traced and 35 of them have already been released
Dar es Salaam. One patient among those diagnosed with Marburg virus in Kagera region was discharged yesterday, making him the first recovered case from the killer disease that was reported last month.
On March 21, Tanzania confirmed the first-ever outbreak of the Marburg virus disease as the Minister for Health, Ummy Mwalimu, announced that five people had died while three others were receiving treatment in hospital.
In a positive move yesterday, however, Ms Mwalimu announced that a 26-year-old male patient was discharged from the hospital while the number of cases had not increased since the outbreak was reported.
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“I’m happy to announce that we have discharged one patient from the hospital, and he is healthy,” she said in a statement.
“It’s my hope that the community will accept him and cooperate with him in their daily activities,” she added.
Two patients were still receiving treatment in hospital.
According to Ms Mwalimu’s statement, a total of 212 people who were suspected to have had contacts with the patients were traced, and 35 of them have already been released from isolation after completing the 21 required days.
“This is a good sign that the Marburg virus disease has been put under control,” said Ms Mwalimu, adding that people should continue with their activities as long as they take precautions until the government and other international agencies are convinced that the virus is completely over.
The government had deployed a rapid response team to Kagera, which borders Uganda, to probe the illness.
The Marburg virus is highly dangerous and contagious. It causes a severe fever, often accompanied by bleeding and organ failure.
It is part of the so-called filovirus family, which also includes Ebola, which has wreaked havoc in several previous outbreaks in Africa, including in Uganda.
The UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) applauded Tanzania’s rapid reaction to the outbreak, adding that it stood ready to ensure “there are no gaps in response.”
“WHO is supporting the Ministry of Health to deploy an emergency team to Kagera to carry out further epidemiological investigations. The emergency team will focus on active case finding in the community and local health care facilities to identify more contacts and provide them with appropriate care,” the UN agency stated.
Neighbouring Uganda, which witnessed its last outbreak in 2017, said it was on “high alert.”
Human-wild animal interactions
The suspected natural source of the Marburg virus is the African fruit bat, which carries the pathogen but does not fall sick from it.
The virus takes its name from the German city of Marburg, where it was first identified in 1967 in a lab where workers had been in contact with infected green monkeys imported from Uganda.
The animals can pass the virus to other primates in close proximity, including humans, and human-to-human transmission then occurs through contact with blood or other body fluids.
Fatality rates in confirmed cases have ranged from 24 percent to 88 percent in previous outbreaks, depending on the virus strain and case management, according to WHO.
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