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 Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has become the deadliest one in the country’s history, with the death toll reaching 2,325, according to the latest reports.

The number has now surpassed the 2,299 deaths recorded during the 2018–2020 Ebola outbreak, which had previously been the country’s worst. The current outbreak has also become the largest in the DRC by number of confirmed cases, with 4,945 infections recorded so far.

The latest figures indicate that the outbreak has reached another grim milestone just three months after it was officially declared on May 15.

Ebola Is Spreading Rapidly

The DRC’s National Public Health Institute reported 101 new confirmed cases in the 24 hours leading up to its latest update, highlighting how quickly transmission is continuing.

The outbreak was first detected in Ituri province, but the virus has since spread to six provinces, including North Kivu, South Kivu, Haut-Uele, Tshopo and Bas-Uele. More than 3,400 cases have been reported in Ituri alone.

The United Nations has described the outbreak as the fastest-growing Ebola epidemic on record.

“Ebola is winning in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We cannot let the virus outrun our response,” UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher said, calling for “speed, scale, and solidarity” before the outbreak gets even further ahead of containment efforts.

Also read: Ebola Outbreak Is Claiming 1 Life Every 30 Minutes In DR Congo: UN Humanitarian Official

The Most Deadly Outbreak

One of the biggest reasons behind rapid transmission is that people are still being diagnosed too late. Thomas Parisch, a public health specialist with Médecins Sans Frontières, said that normally the proportion of people dying should fall as outbreaks progress because contact tracing improves and patients receive treatment earlier.

“Instead, we're still seeing many cases detected very late,” he said, with some infections only being identified after patients have died in their communities.

The case-fatality ratio has climbed from around 20% in early June to approximately 46%, according to Reuters.

That does not mean the virus itself has become more lethal. Rather, the increase is a warning that many patients are reaching healthcare facilities too late for treatment to be effective.

Also read: Ebola 2026 Outbreak Spreading Faster Than Any Before, On Track To Become Deadliest: WHO Chief

No Approved Vaccine

The current outbreak is being caused by the Bundibugyo species of Ebola, a relatively rare strain.

Unlike the Zaire species responsible for several previous major Ebola outbreaks, Bundibugyo currently has no approved vaccine or specific treatment. WHO says experimental vaccines and treatments are being investigated, but they remain under evaluation.

This makes early diagnosis, isolation, contact tracing and supportive medical care particularly important.

The outbreak is also unfolding in an extremely difficult environment. Conflict, population movement, weak healthcare infrastructure, misinformation and shortages of resources are making it harder for health teams to identify and isolate infections quickly. Health workers have also demonstrated strikes due to unpaid wages.

Also read: Amid Rapidly Expanding Ebola Outbreak, DR Congo Is Seeing An Alarming Increase In Maternal Deaths; Here's Why

Efforts Towards Containing The Outbreak

Despite the challenges, WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said significant progress has been made towards containing and eradicating the virus. It includes:

• More than 21,000 community health workers have been trained.
• Treatment centres, safe burial teams, laboratories and community engagement teams are operating across the affected provinces, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.
• A total of 886 patients have recovered, even without specific therapeutics and vaccines, which are progressing through trials.
• For the first time, two vaccines specifically designed against Bundibugyo virus have entered Phase 1 safety trials in humans.
• Two new animal studies of a vaccine against Zaire ebolavirus — the more common species — have shown promising evidence of cross-protection in animals, Tedros said.

In an early trial, scientists are testing the possibility if a vaccine could intercept pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers in the US, at an early stage and prevent it from becoming invasive.

The trial involves people who were considered at high risk of pancreatic cancer and already had small abnormalities, like cysts, in their pancreas.

The experimental vaccine, called mKRAS-VAX, is designed to train the immune system to recognise mutated KRAS proteins, which are found in most pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas, the most common type of pancreatic cancer.

The findings, published in Cancer Discovery, offer an intriguing new approach in which instead of waiting for pancreatic cancer to appear and then treating it, researchers are attempting to intercept the disease at its earliest stages.

How Does The Vaccine Work?

Also read: UK Set To Implement Stricter Protocol For Prostate Cancer Testing; Who Is Eligible To Get Tested?

Pancreatic cancer often develops gradually from precursor lesions. Some of these lesions can contain mutations in the KRAS gene, which can drive the development of the disease.

The mKRAS-VAX vaccine contains synthetic peptides targeting six common KRAS mutations. The goal is to teach T cells to recognise cells carrying these abnormal proteins and destroy them before they progress into cancer.

Unlike traditional vaccines against infections, this is a therapeutic cancer vaccine, meaning it is designed to stimulate the patient's immune system against targets related to cancer.

Findings From The Early Trial

Also read: Following A Western Diet? Changes In Your Gut Bacteria Could Increase Colon Cancer Risk

The Phase 1 study involved 20 people who had either a family history or genetic predisposition to pancreatic cancer and had a pancreatic abnormality detected on imaging.

The vaccine produced mutant-KRAS-specific T-cell responses in 18 of the 20 participants, or 90%. These immune responses persisted for as long as two years. Researchers also saw an intriguing change in pancreatic cysts.

At a median follow-up of 16.5 months, 37.5% of participants experienced cyst reduction or complete resolution. Among a comparable group of unvaccinated people, the figure was 6.8%.

None of the vaccinated participants had developed pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma during the study follow-up. However, this does not prove that the vaccine prevents pancreatic cancer.

The study was small, early-stage and primarily designed to examine safety and whether the vaccine could generate an immune response.

“We are very excited about these results,” pancreatic cancer vaccine researcher Elizabeth Jaffee said.

More About Pancreatic Cysts

The researchers are interested in whether vaccination could intervene during this window, before malignant cells are formed.

That is particularly significant because pancreatic cancer is notoriously difficult to detect early and remains one of the deadliest cancers.

The long-term ambition is to develop a vaccine to prevent pancreatic cancer but researchers are not there yet.

Jaffee described the field as “nascent” and said she is “cautiously optimistic,” while emphasising that these small Phase 1 studies are not designed to establish whether the vaccines improve survival or prevent cancer.

Larger Phase 2 studies will be needed to determine whether the early immune responses translate into meaningful clinical benefits.

Endometriosis is usually characterised by painful periods, chronic pelvic pain and fertility issues. But a new study suggests the condition may also be linked to a significantly higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

Researchers found that women with endometriosis had a 46% higher risk of type 2 diabetes compared with women without the condition.

The findings come from one of the largest studies to examine the relationship between the two conditions, adding a new dimension to the adverse effects of endometriosis.

What Did The Study Find?

Also read: 'My Periods Are Painful' Is Not Always Normal: When Could It Be A Sign of Endometriosis?

Researchers studied health records from nearly 3 million women in the Utah Population Database, covering the period from 1996 to 2021. Almost 100,000 women were diagnosed with endometriosis.

After accounting for factors including age, race and body mass index, women with endometriosis were found to have a 46% greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes than women without the condition. The researchers also found that the association differed depending on the type of endometriosis.

Additionally, the risk of type 2 diabetes was higher across several subtypes, including superficial peritoneal, ovarian and deep infiltrating endometriosis.

The strongest association was seen in women with endometriosis outside the usual pelvic sites, where the risk was about twice as high. Adenomyosis was also associated with an increased risk.

Why Could The Two Disorders Be Connected?

Also read: Maternal Anemia: Why It’s A Major Pregnancy Risk For Indian Women And How to Prevent It

Chronic inflammation could be the reason why the two disorders could be connected. Endometriosis is an inflammatory disease in which tissue resembling the lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus.

Persistent inflammation can affect several systems in the body, while inflammation and poor insulin sensitivity could lead to type 2 diabetes.

“Previous studies largely evaluated endometriosis as a single condition and generally reported little or no overall association with type 2 diabetes,” said Fuzak Nunziato, lead author of the study. “Our findings add to a growing understanding that endometriosis may affect more than reproductive health alone.”

Despite the strong observation, it is to be noted that study found an association, meaning women with endometriosis were more likely to develop type 2 diabetes. It does not prove that endometriosis directly causes type 2 diabetes.

The study was also retrospective, meaning researchers looked back at archival health records rather than assigning participants to groups and studying them prospectively.

A large prospective research published in 2021 found no overall significant increase in type 2 diabetes among women with laparoscopically confirmed endometriosis, although it did find modestly higher risks among certain groups, including women who were not obese.

The association was particularly notable among premenopausal women and women without obesity - groups that are not normally not considered to be at the highest risk for type 2 diabetes.

If further research solidifies the the link, researchers say women with endometriosis could potentially benefit from greater awareness of metabolic health and earlier identification of diabetes risk.