Uganda has confirmed one case of Marburg virus, a highly
infectious hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, the health minister said
on Thursday.
Jane Aceng told reporters at a news conference in capital
Kampala that the case, which led to a fatality, had been confirmed after
a series of tests were carried out.
The East African nation last suffered a Marburg outbreak,
which has a high mortality
rate, in 2014. Marburg is from the same
family of viruses as Ebola, which killed thousands in West Africa in
2014.
The minister said the victim, a 50-year old woman, died on
Oct. 11 at a hospital in eastern Uganda after “she presented with signs
and symptoms suggestive of viral hemorrhagic fevers.
Aceng said the woman had nursed her 42-year old brother who
died on Sept. 25 with similar signs and symptoms and also participated
in cultural preparation of the body for burial.
She said, the brother had been “a hunter who carried out his activities where there are caves with heavy presence of bats.”
The African fruit bat is the reservoir host of the Marburg
virus although infected bats do not show obvious signs of the disease.
(Reuters/NAN)
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