In Rwanda, trial vaccinations against the Marburg virus began on Sunday following a recent outbreak. An initial batch of 700 doses will be used specifically for healthcare workers who are on the front line in the fight against the virus, said the East African country’s health minister, Sabin Nsanzimana, at a press conference.
The US-based Sabin Vaccine Institute announced that it had reached an agreement with Rwanda’s biomedical center to provide the doses as part of a phase 2 study. They are to be administered at six clinical sites. There is currently no approved vaccine against the virus. The vaccine developed by Sabin, which is administered in a single dose, is currently undergoing phase 2 testing in Uganda and Kenya, and no safety concerns have been reported there so far.
Suspected case in Hamburg negative
On September 27, Rwanda reported an outbreak of Marburg fever. According to the institute, 46 people had been infected by Saturday and 12 had died. The mortality rate for this disease is said to be up to 90 percent. The pathogen is named after the Hessian city of Marburg because in 1967 laboratory workers there became infected with the previously unknown virus from test monkeys. At that time, a total of 29 people were infected, seven of whom died. These remained the only cases in Germany.
Last week, a man and a woman in Hamburg were tested for the Marburg virus after they returned from Rwanda and the man showed flu-like symptoms. The test was negative. The Marburg virus can cause high fever and symptoms such as muscle pain, abdominal cramps, diarrhea and bloody vomiting.
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