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Over 60 health workers in Uganda are being monitored after the outbreak of deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever in the country. Health Minister Elioda Tumwesigye, who announced the outbreak here Sunday, said the health workers interacted with the index case which died Sep 28, Xinhua reported. The index case was a health worker who worked at Mengo Hospital in the capital Kampala and at a health centre in Mpigi district in central Uganda.
The minister said 38 health workers are being monitored at Mengo Hospital while 22 others are monitored at a health centre in Mpigi. Tumwesigye said 20 other people who were involved in the burial process of the deceased are also being monitored in Kasese district in western Uganda.
He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) has provided technical and logistical support to contain the disease. The Marburg virus was last reported in Uganda in 2012. According to the WHO, Marburg is a severe and highly fatal disease caused by a virus from the same family as the one that causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever. The illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly, with severe headache and malaise.
Case fatality rates have varied greatly, from 25 percent in the initial laboratory-associated outbreak in 1967, to more than 80 percent in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998-2000, to even higher in the outbreak that began in Angola in late 2004.
Here’s are some interesting facts about the Ebola virus that make it so deadly.
It can kill within seven days: Unlike other viruses (like HIV) that can remain dormant in a person for years without causing the disease, Ebola violently multiplies until the viral particles are amplified to about 100 million viral particles in a droplet of blood. Further, without resting in a dormant stage the virus kills the host to find a new one. The fatality rate of the disease is 60 percent.
There is no vaccine or treatment available: What makes this virus deadly is the fact that researchers have not been able to find an effective treatment or preventive technique to combat the virus and the spread of the disease. The experimental drug Zmapp has shown promising results but the safety and efficacy of the drug are to be evaluated. So, as of now, neither do we have an effective form of therapy nor do we have a vaccine to prevent the disease.
Attacks every part of the human body: Ebola only needs a host cell that can help it produce multiple copies of itself. What worsens the condition is the fact that the virus does not need a specific type of cell to multiply (unlike other deadly diseases). According to studies, except for skeletal muscles and bones, the virus is known to infect every part of the human body. Connective tissues, the ones that hold your internal organs in place, are primary targets of the virus. Read more about 10 reasons that make the Ebola virus deadly for humans
With inputs from IANS
Photo source: Getty images
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Marburg virus outbreak in Uganda, 60 health workers being tracked
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