Rwanda said on Sunday that it had begun a vaccination campaign against the “Marburg” virus in an attempt to combat the outbreak of the disease that has killed 12 people in the East African country.
“Vaccination begins immediately, starting today,” Sabine Nsanzimana, Rwanda’s Minister of Health, said during a press conference in the capital, Kigali.
Nsanzimana added that vaccinations will focus on “those who are most at risk of contracting the disease, health care workers in treatment centres, hospitals, intensive care and emergencies, as well as those who have been in direct contact with confirmed cases of infection.”
Rwanda announced the discovery of the first infection with the Marburg virus in late September, and has since recorded 46 infections and 12 deaths. The death rate due to infection with the virus is 88 percent.
People infected with the disease develop symptoms, including high temperature, severe headache, and feeling unwell, within seven days of infection before the patient suffers from severe nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.
This virus is transmitted to humans by fruit bats before spreading among them through contact with the body fluids of an infected person.
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