West Africa’s first-ever case of Marburg virus confirmed in Guinea

By Zehra Nur Duz

ANKARA (AA) - Health authorities in Guinea confirmed a case of Marburg disease, the first recorded in West Africa of the deadly virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

“This is the first time Marburg, a highly infectious disease that causes hemorrhagic fever, has been identified in the country and in West Africa,” the WHO’s regional office for Africa said in a statement.

The Marburg virus was detected in samples taken from a now-deceased patient who had been receiving treatment at a local clinic in Gueckedou prefecture.

Further analysis by the Pasteur Institute in Senegal confirmed the results.

“Gueckedou, where Marburg has been reported, is also the same region where cases of the 2021 Ebola outbreak in Guinea as well as the 2014–2016 West Africa outbreak were initially detected,” the statement noted.

The statement warned that the Ebola-like deadly Marburg virus, which was first detected in 1967 in a laboratory in Marburg, Germany, has the potential to spread far and wide.

Marburg is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials.

Symptoms of the virus appear in an affected person with the sudden onset of high fever. This is accompanied by headaches, vomiting blood, joint and muscle pains and unexplained bleeding through the body openings including the eyes, nose, gums, ears, anus and the skin.

Case fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on the virus strain and case management.

There is no specific treatment or vaccine available for the virus.