Yahoo – AFP,
11 Nov 2014
The Marburg virus is very similar to Ebola in that it can cause severe bleeding, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and has a 21-day incubation period (AFP Photo/Isaac Kasamani) |
Kampala
(AFP) - Ugandan health officials on Tuesday declared the country free of the
Ebola-like Marburg virus after completing a 42-day surveillance period under
World Health Organization (WHO) rules.
"The
country is officially declared free of the Marburg virus epidemic," senior
health ministry official Sarah Achieng Opendi said in a statement.
A
30-year-old medical technician died from Marburg on September 28, 11 days after
falling ill in a Kampala hospital where he worked, sparking alarm.
A total of
197 people were monitored, including eight who had symptoms, but none had the
virus.
"Since
then, there have been no Marburg cases reported in the country, this implies
that the Marburg outbreak in the country has completely been controlled,"
Opendi added.
The Marburg
virus is one of the most deadly known pathogens. Like Ebola, it causes severe
bleeding, fever, vomiting and diarrhoea and has a 21-day incubation period.
Like Ebola,
the Marburg virus is also transmitted via contact with bodily fluids and fatality
rates range from 25 to 80 percent.
The Ebola
outbreak has claimed almost 5,000 lives in west Africa since the beginning of
the year.
A Marburg
outbreak in Uganda in October 2012 killed 10 people.
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