Cameroon Health Minister Denies Presence of Marburg Virus in Cameroon

The Minister of Public Health, Dr Manaouda Malachie says there are no cases of the Marburg Virus in Cameroon. He was speaking in Yaounde during a meeting with partners of the Ministry of Public Health on Tuesday February 15.

Minister Manaouda Malachie was responding to information that has been circulating that two suspected cases have been reported in the South Region of Cameroon. The Public Health authority has dismissed this as he noted during the meeting that samples taken from the purportedly two persons pointed to malaria and not the Marburg Virus.

Meantime, movement has been prohibited by the Ministry of Public Health to the border area at the South region, sharing boundaries with the Equatoguinean Nsok-Nsomo District. The Ambam, Olamze and Kye-Ossi areas in Cameroon’s South region sharing boundaries with Equatorial Guinea have been called to be cautious.

Equatorial Guinea which shares boundaries on the South of Cameroon have since February 7, 2023 reported none cases of the virus. This was in the Nsok-Nsomo district of the Kie-Ntem Province of the country.

According to information from the WHO, samples of those infected in Equatorial Guinea were sent to a laboratory in Senegal that confirmed the disease. Sixteen other cases were detected by Equatoguinean health officials and 200 people were put in quarantine.

The Minister of Public Health has called on Cameroonians, especially those on the borders on Equatorial Guinea are called to practice preventive measures including; wash hands regularly with clean running water and soap especially after handling an animal or animal product or after taking care of a person with symptoms of haemorrhagic fever, avoid contacts with the body fluid of a sick person including sexual intercourse, avoid contact with wild animals that are sick or found dead, wash food before eating, cook food well and eat food when it is hot.

The Marburg Virus is a rare but severe hemorrhagic fever which affects both people and non-human primates causing the Marburg Virus Disease MVD. It is a genetically unique zoonotic (or animal-borne) RNA virus of the filovirus family. It has no treatment though the symptoms can be cured.

The virus was first noticed in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia).

The African fruit bat is said to be the reservoir host of the virus. After the bat infects a human, the person could then begin the human-to-human infection cycle. The Marburg Virus spreads from one human to another through broken skin or mucous membranes in the eyes, nose, or mouth.

Transmission routes include blood or body fluids (urine, saliva, sweat, faeces, vomit, breast milk, amniotic fluid, and semen) of a person who is sick with or died from the MVD, Objects contaminated with body fluids from a person who is sick with or has died from the Marburg Virus disease (such as clothes, bedding, needles, and medical equipment, Semen from a man who recovered from MVD (through oral, vaginal, or anal sex).

The Marburg Virus, just like the Ebola Virus.

Statistics indicate that 16 countries have experienced outbreaks of the Marburg Virus with 11 cases reported in Africa.