Marburg virus: West Africa records first death due to new disease

The Covid-19 pandemic has already taken millions of lives across the globe and the world countries are still registering lakhs of positive cases every day. Now, scientists have found another highly infectious disease in West Africa, which is said to be more dangerous than the coronavirus.

Health authorities in West Africa have confirmed the region’s first death due to the Marburg virus, a deadly disease that causes haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has said.

The WHO said the virus had been detected in a man who died on August 2 in Guinea. “The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s regional director for Africa.

Marburg is usually exposed by caves and mines that have become habitats for rosettes bats. The prevalence of the virus is estimated at 88 percent. The incubation period of the virus is two to 21 days. In 2008, two independent cases were discovered among travellers visiting a cave inhabited by rosettes‌ bats in Uganda.

Symptoms of the Marburg disease include high fever, severe headache, muscle aches, pains, severe watery diarrhoea, abdominal pain, cramping, nausea and vomiting. Diarrhoea can go on for a week.

As per both WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, currently, there is no authorized vaccine or antiviral drug for Marburg disease.