An outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus has been confirmed. Here’s what you need to know

The World Health Organization this week confirmed an outbreak of the Marburg virus in Equatorial Guinea – the first time the small Central African country has seen a case of the deadly disease.

Marburg, which is linked to Ebola, has been blamed for at least nine deaths in the country, and 16 suspected cases are under investigation.

Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88 percent of people.

A 2004-05 outbreak in Angola killed 90 percent of the 252 confirmed cases.

Here’s what you need to know about this rare but dangerous virus.

What is Marburg virus?

The Marburg virus is believed to have originated in African fruit bats. It was first identified in 1967 in Germany and the former Yugoslavia, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among people who had worked with green monkeys imported from Uganda.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), people can contract the virus through prolonged exposure to mines or caves where bat colonies live.

The virus is spread between humans through direct contact with the blood or other body fluids of an infected person, or with surfaces contaminated with the virus, such as clothing or bedding.

Marburg does not air.

What are the symptoms?

Symptoms can begin “suddenly,” according to the WHO, and include high fever, severe headache and malaise. Muscle aches and pains are also common.

“It can affect every organ, and it will actually cause a shock-like syndrome,” said Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital.

He said the virus can also cause gastrointestinal complications and a predilection for easy bleeding.

The WHO says that a rash can appear in the first seven days, and the central nervous system can be affected, causing confusion, aggression and irritability.

If death occurs, it generally occurs eight to nine days after onset, following severe blood loss and shock.

How to treat?

There is currently no vaccine for Marburg and no therapy to treat it. But patients can be helped.

“He needs supportive care,” Bogoch said, including intravenous fluids, as well as electrolyte balance and monitoring. “This can significantly reduce the mortality rate,” he said.

Where are the confirmed cases now?

The case linked to the current outbreak in Equatorial Guinea was first detected in the northern province of Kie-Ntem, near the border with Cameroon.

The outbreak was confirmed after samples were sent to a laboratory in Senegal. Suspected cases from Cameroon and Gabon were also investigated but found not to be Marburg, the WHO said.

But that doesn’t mean there aren’t more Marburg cases.

“When new diseases appear in new locations, we often only see pieces of the picture,” said Dr. Kamran Khan, founder and CEO of Toronto-based BlueDot, a company that tracks infectious diseases worldwide.

He said there were more cases and more contacts than official numbers would indicate, noting that Equatorial Guinea is one of the most resource-constrained countries in the world.

“The ability of the health care system, the public health infrastructure to fight the epidemic, is quite limited,” he said.

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The WHO said it was sending medical experts to help local officials in Equatorial Guinea, along with protective equipment for hundreds of workers.

“Surveillance on the ground has intensified,” said George Ameh, WHO country representative in Equatorial Guinea.

“Contact tracing, as you know, is the cornerstone of our response. We have…

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency was also supporting the governments of Cameroon and Gabon “to prepare, rapidly detect, isolate and provide treatment for suspected cases.”

Are there any concerns about the spread?

The Marburg outbreak now appears to be regional, but Bogoch notes that an infection in one part of the world can quickly spread to another in a short period of time.

“We saw that, for example, the West African Ebola virus epidemic – which started as a very small outbreak, turned into a multi-country, multi-year outbreak that took a long time to bring under control.”

BlueDot’s Khan said Equatorial Guinea will need international help to overcome the outbreak. “Today, this is a concern for the region and some neighboring countries. But if we do not move forward, this could become a wider concern for the global community.”

Should people living in Canada be worried?

There is no immediate concern about Marburg cases being found in Canada.

“I think it’s important for Canadians to understand that the likelihood of a Marburg case appearing in Canada right now is extremely low,” Kahn said. But he says it’s important to be aware of the bigger problem – which is that “there is another epidemic emerging in the world today, it’s getting bigger, it’s becoming more dangerous and disturbing.”

Bogoch said that while the Marburg outbreak is still small, now is the time to jump on the bandwagon to prevent it from expanding.

Canadians should always care when people anywhere, no matter how far away, are affected by a deadly disease, he said. “But we also have to care because, of course, we know that it can affect a wider area.”