The deadly Marburg Virus Disease, which has a fatality rate up to 88 per cent, is caused by the Marburg virus found in bats. Image: Moneycontrol
New Delhi: Spain has detected its first suspected case of Marburg disease, health authorities in the country’s Valencia region said on Saturday.
A 34-year-old man, who had recently been in Equatorial Guinea, has been transferred from a private hospital to an isolation unit at the Hospital La Fe in Valencia while tests are carried out, the regional health authorities said, Reuters reported.
What is Marburg disease?
Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) is cused by the Marburg virus. MVD can have a fatality rate of up to 88 per cent according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat it.
The virus is named after the German city of Marburg, where it was first identified after an outbreak in 1967.
The virus originates in bats. It is highly infectious and spreads between people via close contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, or surfaces, like contaminated bed sheets or clothes.
Symptoms of the desease include haemorrhage, fever, diarrhoea and vomiting. It begins with high fever and severe headache before progressing to diarrhoea, abdominal cramps and vomiting. According to WHO, many patients develop severe haemorrhagic manifestations between 5 and 7 days.
The disease has led to the quarantining of more than 200 people in Equatorial Guinea. On 13 February movement was restricted in the country’s Kie-Ntem province, where the haemorrhagic fever was first detected.
The small central African country has so far reported nine deaths as well as 16 suspected cases of the disease, with symptoms including fever, fatigue, blood-stained vomit and diarrhoea, according to the WHO. The WHO said it was increasing its epidemiological surveillance in Equatorial Guinea.
Cameroonian authorities detected two suspected cases of Marburg disease on 13 February in Olamze, a commune on the border with Equatorial Guinea, the public health delegate for the region, Robert Mathurin Bidjang, said on 14 February. Cameroon had restricted movement along the border to try to avoid contagion.
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