Rwanda reports 8 deaths linked to Ebola-like Marburg virus

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00:00Approximately 300 contact cases are being tested right now in Rwanda.

00:04The Minister of Health confirmed that the first case of the Marburg virus had been detected

00:09in Kigali, the capital inside of a general hospital, but we don't know yet if other

00:14regions are affected by the outbreak.

00:16So far we do know that the majority of the 8 deaths and 18 confirmed cases under treatment

00:21are frontline healthcare workers.

00:24The Minister of Health said the investigation to determine the exact origin of the virus

00:29is still ongoing.

00:30We are still tracing to see if it started in-country or elsewhere, but within the country

00:36the first case tested was from one of the university hospital within Kigali, was a patient

00:43followed in emergency care ICU which were not responding to other treatments.

00:51There is a lot happening in terms of contact tracing, testing, isolation, treatment.

01:00The Marburg virus can cause hemorrhagic fever and its fatality rate ranges between 20 and

01:0590%.

01:06There is no known vaccine but transmission occurs only through direct contact with the

01:10blood or other fluids of an infected person.

01:13Authorities have therefore advised the public to continue their activities while simply

01:18avoiding physical contact.

01:20The WHO has stated that it will send a team of seven experts to the country to support

01:25the authorities.

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