By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Rwandan authorities have issued a guideline to curtail the spread of Marburg virus following the death of eight persons, arising from the country’s first outbreak of the virus, which was confirmed on Friday by the ministry of health.
The new guidelines aiming to mitigate the spread of Marburg limits the number of people to attend the funeral of a person who died from the disease to 50.
Heritage Times HT gathered that Marburg, with a fatality rate of up to 88%, is from the same virus family as Ebola.
It spreads to humans from fruit bats and then through contact with bodily fluids of infected individuals.
“Normal business and other activities” can continue in the East African country, said the advisory, published on Sunday evening.
However, it also urged the public to avoid close contact with “symptomatic individuals”. The ministry listed symptoms such as fever, headaches, muscle aches, vomiting and diarrhoea.
According to medical experts, the virus can cause death through extreme blood loss.
The health ministry’s guidelines said visitors would not be permitted in hospitals for the next 14 days. Additionally, patients will also only be allowed one caregiver at a time.
On Saturday, when the official death toll was six, Rwanda’s health minister said most of the victims were healthcare workers in a hospital intensive care unit.
She however added that there is hope as Rwanda has “a lot better infrastructure and history of public health coordination that many other countries”.
Rwanda said it was intensifying contact tracing, surveillance and testing to help contain the spread.
The country’s health minister said on Sunday that officials were tracking about 300 people who had come into contact with individuals affected by the Marburg virus.
