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.

The recent hantavirus outbreak aboard the luxury ship MV Hondius, which drew global attention and raised concerns about the potential for wider spread, has highlighted the need for better therapeutics and vaccines.

The outbreak claimed three lives and infected 13 people. While those affected recovered from the infection, they had contracted the Andes strain, which carries a risk of human-to-human transmission. There is currently no specific antiviral drug or vaccine for the Andes virus.

Now, researchers writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases have reported early promising results for tocilizumab as a treatment for severe hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).

The researchers said tocilizumab warrants further evaluation as a treatment for severe hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

What Did The Study Find?

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The study is based on a case series involving 10 hantavirus patients treated at Hospital Zonal de Bariloche, Argentina, between June 1, 2024, and May 6, 2026.

Tocilizumab is an immunosuppressive medication used to treat severe inflammatory conditions, including severe COVID-19 and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.

Researchers from San Carlos de Bariloche, Argentina, said that under an ethical framework allowing the emergency use of unproven medications outside clinical trials when no satisfactory alternatives exist, tocilizumab was administered to five eligible patients with laboratory-confirmed severe hantavirus pulmonary syndrome.

Five other patients received standard supportive care without Tocilizumab because they were too sick or the medication was unavailable when treatment was being considered. The case series represents the first descriptive report from a larger ongoing study.

Four of the five patients treated with Tocilizumab survived and were discharged from intensive care, whereas all five patients who did not receive Tocilizumab died shortly after admission to intensive care.

There is currently no approved vaccine or specific antiviral treatment for the Andes strain, underscoring the importance of further research into potential therapies such as tocilizumab.

However, the authors said, "the findings should not be interpreted as evidence for the implementation of routine use of Tocilizumab to treat severe hantavirus pulmonary syndrome, but they do support the need for urgent further research".

What Is Hantavirus?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), hantaviruses are zoonotic viruses that naturally infect rodents and are occasionally transmitted to humans.

Globally, an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 hantavirus infections occur each year. The majority of cases are reported in Asia, particularly China. Most infections are sporadic or occur in small clusters linked to contact with infected rodents.

In humans, hantavirus infection can cause severe illness and death, although disease severity varies depending on the virus strain and geographical region.

Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome

Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome is a severe viral disease caused by the Andes virus, a type of hantavirus endemic in several regions of the Americas, including Argentina and Chile. In recent years, parts of Argentina have seen an increase in hantavirus cases.

The severe respiratory illness can rapidly become fatal. Reported fatality rates range from 20 per cent to 40 per cent, depending on the outbreak setting, quality of medical care, and surveillance capacity.

How Does Hantavirus Spread?

Hantavirus is primarily spread through contact with infected rodents, including exposure to:

• Urine
• Droppings
• Saliva
• Less commonly, scratches or bites from infected rodents

Unsafe food causes around 866 million illnesses and 1.5 million deaths annually, according to new estimates released by the World Health Organization (WHO) ahead of World Food Safety Day 2026.

The analysis warned that children aged less than five years face almost three times the risk of illness from unsafe food than older children and adults.

Children under 5 years of age experience 29 per cent of the health burden due to unsafe food, with 143,000 deaths in 2021, said the WHO. The global health body added that exposure to chemical hazards such as methylmercury and lead in food can harm the developing brain and cause lifelong neurological and developmental problems in children.

Foodborne diseases in children, particularly diarrhoeal diseases, can be deadly for this vulnerable age group.

“Food safety is not an abstract issue – it touches every meal, every family, every day. Unsafe food has always been a major public health concern, but until now we lacked the bigger picture of its staggering human and economic toll. These new estimates change that,” said WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“For the first time, countries have their own data to see where the burden is highest. With that knowledge, governments can prioritize the actions needed to protect people’s health,” he added.

Food Safety: What Are the Risk Factors?

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The WHO noted that exposure to biological hazards, including foodborne bacteria, viruses and parasitic infections, caused the majority of foodborne illnesses (approximately 860 million in 2021), while chemical exposures accounted for 73 per cent of deaths.

The new analysis significantly expands the evidence base by assessing 42 major foodborne hazards, including bacteria, viruses, parasites and chemicals, across 194 countries from 2000 to 2021.

The estimates now include new hazards such as metals, rotavirus and Trypanosoma cruzi, the parasite that causes Chagas disease.

Food can also be contaminated with chemicals such as inorganic arsenic, lead and methylmercury from natural sources and human activities.

The estimates revealed for the first time that dietary exposure to metals is increasing the burden of:

• Cardiovascular diseases
• Cancers
• Intellectual disability

Other risk factors include:

• Evolving diets
• Environmental pressures
• Globalization and inequalities in food systems.

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Yuki Minato, WHO technical officer for food safety and senior author of The Lancet Global Health paper, noted that the analysis shows foodborne diseases are “being made worse by climate change, which increases contamination risks, and by antimicrobial resistance, which makes infections harder to treat”.

Yuki called for “a One Health approach – integrating human, animal, plant and environmental health” to save lives.

How To Prevent Foodborne Diseases

The WHO estimates that many food-related illnesses and deaths are preventable through measures including:

• Improved water quality
• Better sanitation and hygiene
• Food safety practices such as pasteurization
• Access to healthcare for vulnerable populations
• Keep clean
• Separate raw and cooked food
• Cook thoroughly
• Keep food at safe temperatures
• Use safe water and raw materials.

Prostate cancer is a big issue now in the United Kingdom, as the nation is witnessing 64,000 men diagnosed and 12,000 dying each year from this deadly disease. The statistics show that one in eight men will get prostate cancer in their lifetime, but for black men, that risk doubles to one in four.

As a preventive measure to find better ways of testing for the disease, tens of thousands of black men are invited for prostate cancer checks as part of an ongoing trial where the age group is between 45 and 74.

This crucial move has been taken after the minister considered the UK National Screening Committee's recent recommendation that most men should not be offered regular testing for the disease.

The committee stressed that the blood test for detecting prostate cancer, called PSA, is more harmful than its benefits, except for a few men who have a dangerous genetic variant and a family history of cancer.

The government is proactive about this major health issue and stated that it will invest 18 million pounds to transform the trial.

The research aims to determine whether other tests and procedures, alongside PSA, can be used in the screening process. In this study, they will check whether genetic checks and faster MRI scans can be used with greater accuracy,

Health Secretary James Murray said, "This is a major step forward in how we tackle prostate cancer - focusing on those most at risk, improving the treatments available, and backing the research we need to close the evidence gaps and save lives."

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What is the prostate, and how is screening done?

The prostate is a small walnut-shaped gland in men that produces seminal fluid, which nourishes and transports sperm. Prostate cancer develops when abnormal cells begin growing in the gland.

Though not all prostate cancers are life-threatening. Some forms grow very slowly and may never affect a man’s lifespan. Such slow-growing cancers are found in around one in three men over the age of 50.

However, a smaller number of prostate cancers are aggressive, spread rapidly, and can become life-threatening, making timely detection important.

Also Read: Prostate Cancer Screening In UK To Focus On High-Risk Men; Guidelines Reject Universal Testing

Screening typically involves a blood test called prostate-specific antigen (PSA). Depending on the results, patients may then undergo an MRI scan of the prostate.

However, screening healthy men can sometimes lead to overdiagnosis and unnecessary treatment, which may result in side effects such as erectile dysfunction and loss of bladder control.

A major review by the National Screening Committee found that for every 1,000 men screened in their 50s, two prostate cancer deaths could be prevented over 15 years.

But the same screening could also result in 20 men being diagnosed with cancers that would never have required treatment. Of those 20 men, 12 could undergo unnecessary treatment that may damage the prostate, affect sexual function, or cause urinary incontinence.