Victory over Ebola-Like Virus in Uganda!

Medic-ALL (14:11:2014)

In what can be regarded as another "win" for humans over the recently "more popular" viral haemorragic diseases, authorities in the east African country of Uganda reported that the country was now free of Marburg, a virus similar to Ebola in many respects, after no new cases had been reported for more than a month after a hospital worker died of the disease in the capital, Kampala. The declaration by the United Nations Health Agency comes after a 42-day Surveillance period.

The virus is transmitted through bodily fluids or by handling infected wild animals, Marburg starts with a severe headache followed by hemorrhaging and kills in 80 percent or more cases within about a week. There is no vaccine or specific treatment for the virus.

A total of 197 people were in contact with the healthcare worker, but none of them were found to have been infected, Junior health minister Sarah Opendi told a news conference.

Opendi said 42 days was the minimum period of monitoring before an outbreak is declared contained, and there had been no new cases reported since the death in Kampala on Sept. 28.

"This implies that the Marburg outbreak in the country has been completely controlled," she said.

The worst outbreak of Ebola on record has killed nearly 5,000 people - all but a handful in West Africa's Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - since March.

Marburg disease virus (MVD) (formerly known as Marburg haemorrahagic fever) was first identified in the 1967 epidemics in Marburg (hence the name) and Frankfurt in Germany and Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia following importation of infected monkeys from Uganda.

Uganda, according to the Health Minister of the country, in 2012, endured an outbreak of Marburg that killed 9 of the 18 people infected

Ref: WHO Global Alert and Response

Medic-ALL.Inc 2014

Ebola in Spain

Medic-ALL (07:10:2014)

In the first known case of Ebola transmission outside the shores of Africa, a Spanish Nurse has tested positive for the deadly Ebola virus in Madrid, Spain just days after the United States reported it's first case of the disease. The Spanish medical worker tested positive after treating an Africa-based missionary who had been infected with the virus and flown to Madrid, where he was been admitted at the Carlos Ill Hospital which had been specially prepared to treat the disease. Alarms are however being raised by Spanish medical-worker representatives over the adequacy of the country's medical procedures to manage the disease and prevent the spread in the country and beyond.

The infected medical worker was part of a team that treated Brother Manuel Garcia Viejo, a Spanish missionary who served as a medical director of a hospital in Sierra Leone and died of Ebola on September 25, three days after he was flown into Madrid. She worked as a sanitary technician and may have being in contact with the patient once while he was alive and with with clothes after he died. She subsequently presented with a fever on September 30th, admitted at a Suburban hospital in Madrid.

The infection was confirmed by two tests, the second one yesterday October 6th.

As the world continues to be gripped with news of spread of the virus, we continue to hope it is contained successfully world-wide. There have been over 7400 cases reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia mainly and the death toll has surpassed 3400 deaths in the deadliest Ebola outbreak in world history.