The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an agency of the African Union, confirmed new cases of Marburg virus in Ethiopia, a virus from the filoviridae family, the same as Ebola. This disease is very contagious and causes high fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting: the first symptoms are usually sudden fever, severe headache and chest pain. World Health Organization (WHO) Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (who is also an Ethiopian) also confirmed that there were at least nine cases in the southern region of the country.
According to WHO, in previous epidemics, the Marburg virus had a very high mortality rate, causing the deaths of between 24 and 88 percent of infected people. The virus was originally transmitted to humans by so-called flying foxes (they are bats), but transmission can also occur between humans, and there is currently no vaccine.
There was a Marburg outbreak in Tanzania in January, which left 10 people dead before it was stopped in March. Last December, 15 people died in Rwanda. Experimental vaccine trials began in 2023, but are still ongoing.
