After mpox outbreak, Africa is under the threat of yet another virus outbreak, this is the Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda. So far, six people have died from the outbreak, confirmed the health minister. Most victims were the healthcare workers in the hospital's intensive care unit. As per reports, 20 cases have been identified since the outbreak was confirmed on Friday.

What Is Marbug Virus?

With the fatality rate of 8% it is the same virus family as Ebola. The main carrier is from fruit bats which spreads to humans then through the contact of bodily fluids of infected individuals, it spreads to others.

Common Signs And Symptoms

The common signs and symptoms of the Marburg virus include fever, pain, diarrhoea, vomiting and in the case of extreme blood loss, death too can happen.

So far, there is no specific treatment or vaccine for the virus. However, treatments like drugs and immune therapy are being developed as per the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Call Of Action

Rwanda says that it has intensified its contact tracing, surveillance and testing to contain the spread. It has also tracked about 300 people who had come into contact with individuals affected by the Marburg virus.

The health minister has urged people to stay vigilant and avoid any physical contact and to wash their hands with clean water, soap or sanitiser and report any suspected case.

As of now, most of the cases have spread to the capital in Kigali. In light of this, the US Embassy in the city has advised its employees to work remotely for the next week.

This is the first time Rwanda has confirmed for Marburg cases, before this, in 2023, Tanzania confirmed the outbreak, whereas three people had died of this in Uganda in 2017.

History Of Marburg

As per WHO, this virus kills half of the people it infects. In the previous outbreaks, it has killed between 24% to 88% of the patients.

The virus was first detected in 1976 after 31 people were infected, out of which 7 died in simultaneous outbreak in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and Belgrade in Serbia.

The source was traced to African green monkeys who were imported from Uganda. However, other animals too are linked to the virus spread, including bats.

In the past, the virus outbreaks have happened in countries like Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. In 2005, this virus killed 300 people in Angola.

However, for the rest of the world, only two people have died from the virus in the rest of the world, with one of them being in Europe, and the other in the US. These both have been on expeditions to caves in Uganda.

Medicine safety must become everyone’s responsibility, the Indian government said today while launching the Biovigilance Program to monitor adverse events linked to organ and tissue transplantation.

Under the program, the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission (IPC) will lead efforts to strengthen the reporting, assessment, monitoring and prevention of adverse events associated with medicines and biological products used in organ and tissue transplantation, including products administered to donors and recipients.

Together, pharmacovigilance, materiovigilance and biovigilance initiatives will strengthen safety monitoring across medicines, medical devices and transplant procedures.

The program was launched by Union Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare and Chemicals & Fertilizers Anupriya Patel at the 6th National Pharmacovigilance Week organized by the IPC at Dr. Ambedkar International Centre in New Delhi.

New Medicine Safety Initiatives

Patel also launched initiatives to help healthcare professionals make informed, evidence-based decisions when prescribing and using medicines. These include:

• The 7th Edition of the National Formulary of India (NFI),
• The Guidance Document for Hospitals in India for Safety Monitoring and Reporting of Medical Device-Related Adverse Events,
• The ADR-PvPI 2.0 Mobile App for iOS users.

“Rational use of medicines and continuous safety monitoring are integral to public health,” said Patel. She added that “every patient must receive the right medicine, of assured quality, in the right manner and with the highest possible degree of safety”.

“The NFI serves as an important bridge between scientific standards and clinical practice, guiding healthcare professionals in the appropriate and rational use of medicines,” Patel said.

India’s Pharmacovigilance Network

Patel emphasized that medicine safety is a continuous responsibility—from the development and manufacture of a drug or medical device to its prescription, dispensing, use and post-market monitoring.

She also highlighted the country’s progress in pharmacovigilance, noting that “India has built a strong indigenous ecosystem capable of generating, collecting, processing and analyzing medicine-safety data from across the country”.

India has moved from the 123rd position during 2009–2014 to 8th globally in contributions to the WHO patient safety database, Patel said.

The Pharmacovigilance Program of India (PvPI), coordinated by the National Coordination Centre at IPC, systematically collects, assesses and analyzes adverse drug reaction information. The Materiovigilance Program of India (MvPI) monitors adverse events associated with medical devices.

AI And Patient Reporting

Patel said digital initiatives, including NFI Online, IP Online, ADR-PvPI 2.0 Mobile App and the Adverse Drug Reaction Monitoring System (ADRMS), are making medicine-related information and adverse-event reporting more accessible, transparent and responsive.

She called for greater use of emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics, to strengthen medicine-safety systems and enable timely generation and use of safety evidence.

The Minister also stressed the need to increase patient participation in adverse-event reporting. She noted that digital platforms, mobile applications and helplines have made reporting easier, and called for addressing the “missing link” of patient reporting.

"Around 1,150 ADR reporting centers are currently operational across public and private hospitals and medical colleges in the country, along with medical-device vigilance facilities. The government plans to expand these capabilities to the primary healthcare level," Patel said.

India’s Patient Safety Push

Referring to the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, Patel said patient safety must remain a key national priority. She called for India to build on its position as the “pharmacy of the world” and aspire to become a global leader in pharmacovigilance sciences and patient safety.

“Medicine safety must become everyone’s responsibility. Every single reported event can save a life.”

She said collective participation would be critical to building a strong culture of medicine safety and promoting the rational use of medicines.

Physicist Stephen Hawking lived with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) for more than five decades. Diagnosed at 21 in 1963, he was initially given just two years to live. However, his early-onset form of ALS progressed unusually slowly. Hawking died on March 14, 2018, aged 76.

Now, US researchers have developed a personalized RNA therapy for a rare genetic form of ALS and administered it to a single patient. One year after treatment, the patient showed improvements in physical function and a key biomarker of nerve damage.

ALS, also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig’s disease, affects nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary movement. As these neurons deteriorate, muscles become progressively weaker and can eventually lead to paralysis.

What Was The New RNA Therapy?

Researchers at the Mayo Clinic developed an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) therapy, a personalized RNA-based treatment designed to target RNA produced by the mutated gene and reduce the production of specific proteins.

Unlike conventional gene therapy, which aims to alter a person's genetic material, ASO therapy uses short strands of genetic material called “oligonucleotides,” to target RNA, according to the findings, published in the international journal Med.

These oligonucleotides prevent the production of the proteins that cause ALS.

It was administered on the male patient who had slowly progressive ALS, with onset in his right shoulder in 2020. In 2018, he underwent a spine surgery for radiating left neck and arm pain with mild weakness.

It was in 2021 that he was diagnosed with ALS caused by a mutation in the CHCHD10 gene, found in fewer than 1% of people with hereditary ALS.

Defects in CHCHD10 can damage mitochondria, which produce energy inside cells, ultimately contributing to nerve-cell death and ALS.

Patient's ALS Symptoms Improved

The patient received six spinal injections between April 2024 and April 2025. The first three doses were 50 milligrams each, followed by three 75-milligram doses.

One year after the first dose, the patient's blood levels of neurofilament light chain (NfL) had fallen by about 50% and returned to the normal reference range.

NfL is a protein released when nerve cells are damaged and is used as a biomarker of neurodegeneration and ALS progression.

The patient's score on the Revised ALS Functional Rating Scale (ALSFRS-R) also increased from 33 to 36 over the year. The scale measures physical function in people with ALS.

Other measures of breathing and cognition remained stable, and the patient showed no signs of cognitive decline during the reported follow-up.

"To date, the ASO has been well tolerated, with a good safety profile, and has demonstrated early signs of efficacy. The patient reports subjective improvement, and our primary response biomarker, neurofilament light (NfL), has normalized," the research team wrote in the paper.

The patient’s symptoms improved one year after receiving the drug, and he continues to work as a physician, Nature reported.

“We have shown that it is possible to develop a personalized ASO therapy for CHCHD10-related ALS,” adding that this provides “evidence suggesting the potential for therapeutic benefit in the clinic,” the research team stated.

Is This A Cure For ALS?

The findings are an early step, and it is far too soon to know whether the treatment can stop ALS progression or provide a cure.

The patient will need to be monitored for several more years, while the therapy must also be tested in additional patients to determine whether the improvements can be sustained and whether the treatment can slow disease progression.

A new clinical trial published by The Lancet says that HIV treatment through two injections every eight weeks kept the virus suppressed more effectively than daily tablets among adolescents, calling for efforts to make this treatment available and accessible worldwide.

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The LATA trial, led by a team of researchers at University College London (UCL), examined 476 adolescents aged between 12 to 19 across five clinics in Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

Participants were randomly assigned to continue daily antiretroviral tablets or switch to injections containing cabotegravir and rilpivirine.

All participants had already been taking HIV treatment for more than a year, had an undetectable amount of viral load and had no history of treatment failure. Most of the participants had acquired HIV at birth.

HIV Injections Prevented Viral Rebound

After 96 weeks, just two adolescents showed confirmed viral rebound, or 1%, in the injectable-treatment group. Comparatively, 15 adolescents, or 6%, among those taking daily tablets showed viral rebound. Viral rebound refers to the levels of HIV in the blood that increases again after being suppressed previously.

Maintaining an undetectable viral load is central to HIV treatment. It also reduces the risk of sexual transmission significantly.

The researchers found that the injectable treatment was not only effective at maintaining viral suppression but was preferred by adolescents.

Around 94% of participants receiving the injections said treatment every eight weeks was much easier and more convenient than taking medicine every day.

Professor Sarah Pett, chief investigator of the LATA trial at UCL, said, “HIV-positive adolescents as a group have historically done worse on antiretrovirals compared to adults. There is bullying and stigma associated with taking pills every day. Long-acting injectables taken every two months can help young people lead a more normal life.”

She added that the benefits seen in adolescents were stronger than previously observed in adults, where trials have generally shown that injections are no less effective than daily tablets.

Also read: Exclusive With Leading HIV Expert: What's Driving Rising HIV Cases Among India's Youth And How To Prevent It

Could Injections Help Treat HIV Better In Young People?

Taking HIV pills every day can be difficult for adolescents, particularly when its treatment is associated with stigma. They may have concerns about others discovering their HIV status, which could challenge the maintenance of a daily routine.

The weekly-injection approach removes the need to remember to take a pill every day. Instead, cabotegravir and rilpivirine are administered in a healthcare setting once every eight weeks. This could be particularly relevant in Africa, where most adolescents living with HIV reside.

“Nine out of 10 adolescents with HIV live in Africa, yet currently this treatment is not accessible to them,” Pett said.

Also read: Once-Weekly Oral Combination HIV Pill Shows Promise As Alternative to Daily Treatment

Accessibility To The Treatment Is Still A Challenge

Despite the promising results, researchers say that access to the groundbreaking treatment still remains a major challenge.

The HIV injections are more expensive than standard tablets as they remain under patent. Rilpivirine also requires refrigeration during storage and transport. Trained healthcare workers are needed to administer the injections every eight weeks.

The World Health Organization currently recommends that the injectable treatment must be used as an alternative for adults and adolescents who have successfully suppressed HIV on oral treatment as well as do not have active hepatitis B.

Dr Deborah Ford of UCL said, “The lack of availability of injectable treatments in Africa risks increasing inequalities in HIV care, leaving most people living with HIV without access to treatments that are available in high-income settings.”