Highly contagious Marburg virus spreads across Rwanda, resulting in over 300 infection cases and eight deaths across the country.

According to Al Jazeera, the country declared an outbreak of the virus which presently has no authorised vaccine or treatment. The virus has affected seven out of the 30 districts in the country.

Health minister of Rwanda, Sabin Nsanzimana said that the country is “intensifying contact tracing and testing to help stop the spread.” Rwandan authorities are intensifying outbreak control efforts to prevent the virus which has infected the country for the first time.

WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed on the social media platform X that the World Health Organization (WHO) is scaling up its support and working with the Rwandan authorities to help stop the spread of the virus.

Marburg outbreak has been reported across African countries like Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, and South Africa according to the WHO.

According to the WHO’s Rwanda Office, emergency medical supplies are being readied to curb the virus and a consignment of infection prevention and control supplies is being prepared for delivery to the Rwandan capital city Kigali in the coming days from WHO’s Emergency Response Hub in Nairobi, Kenya.

The rare virus was first identified in 1967 after it caused an outbreak of disease in the laboratories across Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia when people died after being exposed to the virus while researching on monkeys.

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

According to WHO, symptoms of Marburg virus include fever, muscle pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and, in some cases, death through extreme blood loss.

The virus causes haemorrhagic fever and has a fatality ratio of up to 88%. It is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease.