US Ships Marburg Vaccines To Rwanda

Amid the Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda, the United States government has completed its initial shipment of vaccine doses and therapeutic drug on Friday. This was confirmed by Thierry Roels, US CDC Country Director in Rwanda to Reuters on Saturday.

The US government is also working with several international partners and Rwanda's Ministry of Health to start clinical trials in order to evaluate investigational countermeasures. For this, the US government is also considering another supply for clinical trials.

However, so far, the number of doses shipped to Rwanda is not clear. Previously, amid the outbreak in capital city Kigali, the US Embassy advised its employees to work remotely.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has evaluated four vaccine candidates for trial use. However, among the four, only one vaccine made by Sabin Vaccine Institute non-profit has the data from early-stage human trials to prove it is safe and leads to an immune response.

The Sabin Vaccine has delivered around 700 doses of vaccines to Rwanda and is to be used in a trial targeting frontline workers, including the healthcare professional.

The non-profit also plans to supply additional vaccines pending a request from Rwanda government as well as authorisation from the US Center for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA).

What Is Marburg?

According to the WHO, the Marburg virus kills half of the people it infects. For instance in previous outbreaks, it killed between 24% to 88% of the infected.

It is named after Marburg in Germany, where the first case was detected in 1976. A total of 31 people were infected, out of which 7 had died. This outbreak was noticed in Frankfurt, Belgrade and Serbia, along with the initial location of Marburg.

What Are The Symptoms?

The symptoms include high fever, headaches from mild to severe and malaise within the 7-days of infection. Other symptoms later in the stage could be severe nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea.

Previously, it was seen in countries like Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. The source of this is believed to fruit bats who transmit it to humans and then it spreads to other human beings through bodily contact.