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WHO Amps E. Guinea Marburg Watch


FILE: A general view of housing in the Malabo2 quarter in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Taken Nov.16, 2022. The World Health Organization is stepping up efforts in that nation as the Marburg virus erupts there.
FILE: A general view of housing in the Malabo2 quarter in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea. Taken Nov.16, 2022. The World Health Organization is stepping up efforts in that nation as the Marburg virus erupts there.

The World Health Organization is increasing its epidemiological surveillance in Equatorial Guinea after the country confirmed its first outbreak of the Marburg virus, a WHO official said on Tuesday.

"Surveillance in the field has been intensified," said George Ameh, WHO's country representative in Equatorial Guinea.

"Contact tracing, as you know, is a cornerstone of the response. We have...redeployed the COVID-19 teams that were there for contact tracing and quickly retrofitted them to really help us out," he added.

The small Central African country has so far reported nine deaths as well as 16 suspected cases of Marburg virus disease according to the WHO.

Equatorial Guinea quarantined more than 200 people and restricted movement last week in its Kie-Ntem province after detecting an unknown hemorrhagic fever. The country officially declared its first outbreak of Marburg virus disease on Monday.

"We're working on a 30-day response plan where we should be able to quantify what are the exact measures and quantify what are the exact needs," Ameh said.

He added that the country's authorities had not reported any new suspected cases in the last 48 hours.

Marburg virus is a highly infectious and deadly disease similar to Ebola and can have a fatality rate of up to 88%, according to the WHO. There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat it.

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