Public health officials are sounding the alarm after an outbreak of Marburg virus in Rwanda that has infected 27 people and killed 9.
In response to the outbreak, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a statement on Monday, announcing that the federal agency has offered support to help control the deadly disease.
Marburg virus disease is a severe and often fatal zoonotic illness that is usually transmitted to humans via fruit bats. Human-to-human transmission is also possible through direct contact with bodily fluids from an infected person, or from equipment and materials contaminated with infectious blood and tissues.
“To date, no cases of Marburg virus disease related to this outbreak have been reported in the United States, and the anticipated risk of Marburg virus disease to the general population in the United States is low,” the CDC said in a statement.
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Newsweek has contacted the CDC via an online media request form for further updates on the situation. Africa CDC, which dispatched a team of experts to Rwanda on Sept. 29, was also contacted via email for comment.
Marburg virus belongs to the same family of viruses as Ebola, and is transmitted in much the same way. Both diseases are clinically similar and have the capacity to cause outbreaks with high fatality rates, up to 88 percent of people who are infected in the case of the Marburg virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
In its statement, the CDC said it has “offered additional support to Rwanda” to help battle the outbreak which was declared on Friday.
“CDC is deploying subject matter experts to assist with the country’s investigation and response to this outbreak,” the agency said. “The staff will use experience from responding to outbreaks of Marburg virus disease AND similar diseases in other countries to support epidemiology, contact tracing, laboratory testing, disease detection and control along borders and hospital infection prevention and control.”
The statement also warned that health-care workers are particularly at risk in outbreak settings.
As a precaution, staff at the U.S. embassy in Rwanda’s capital, Kigali, have been authorized to work remotely until Oct. 4.
“All in-person services at the U.S. Embassy during this period will be suspended, including American Citizen Services and visa interviews,” the embassy said.
Contact tracing and public health advice has been issued on the ground in Rwanda. However, as things stand, there are no vaccines or treatment for the disease. Several vaccines are in development, with the Sabin Vaccine Institute in Washington, D.C., leading the charge.
A U.S. trial involving 40 human participants found that the vaccine is safe and generated an immune response. A larger Phase 2 clinical trial in Uganda is underway, according to Sabin.
“Sabin’s Phase 2 clinical trial builds on a solid safety and immunogenicity foundation and we are hoping it will generate the information needed to move the vaccine toward licensure,” Amy Finan, Sabin’s chief executive officer, said in a statement at the time of the trial’s launch.
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