GENEVA: The UN health agency World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that it would hold an emergency meeting today after at least 9 people in Equatorial Guinea lost their lives from Marburg hemorrhagic fever, a cousin of the Ebola virus.
WHO said that it was convening an urgent meeting of the Marburg virus vaccine consortium (MARVAC)” at 3 pm (1400 GMT) on Tuesday.
MARVAC is comprised of representatives from the areas of vaccine research and development, working to make vaccines against the Marburg virus.
The Marburg virus is a very dangerous pathogen that causes severe fever, often with bleeding and organ failure.
It is part of the filovirus family that also includes the Ebola virus, which has brutally claimed a number of lives in several previous outbreaks in Africa.
WHO’s strategy
WHO said that there are currently no antiviral treatments or vaccines approved to treat disease, but potential treatments, including immune therapies, blood products, drug therapies, and early candidate vaccines were being evaluated.
The announcement came after Equatorial Guinea’s health minister, Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba said late Monday that 9 people had died in the first outbreak of the disease in the country.
The minister said that a health alert had been declared in Kie-Ntem province and in the neighbouring district Mongomo, with a “lockdown plan implemented” after consulting with the UN health agency.
He added that the lockdown is affecting 4,325 people in Kie-Ntem.
The deaths occurred between 7 January and 7 February. – AFP/APP
