Rwanda to start Marburg vaccinations

Rwanda’s health minister said the country would begin vaccinations against the deadly Ebola-like Marburg virus on Sunday after receiving some 700 doses of a trial vaccine.

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The death toll since the outbreak was announced in Rwanda on September 28 has risen to 12, most of them health workers.

With a fatality rate of up to 88 percent, the highly infectious hemorrhagic fever is often accompanied by bleeding and organ failure.

“The vaccines have been tested by health officials here in Rwanda and the standards bureau,” Health Minister Nsanzimana Sabin told reporters.

“Today we will begin to immunize those who are most at risk of contracting this disease, including doctors and others who have come in contact with Marburg patients.”

He added there were plans to order more doses.

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The experimental vaccine, currently in phase 2 trials, was provided by the US-based Sabin Vaccine Institute.

“The initial shipment of approximately 700 vaccine doses will be used in a trial targeting frontline workers, including healthcare professionals who have been hardest hit by the deadly virus,” the institute said in a statement on Saturday.

It said trials had already been underway in neighboring Uganda and Kenya, with no safety concerns reported to date.

Some 41 people have been confirmed to have contracted the disease in Rwanda, the health ministry said.

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The Rwanda Development Board said travel measures were being put in place on Sunday.

It said temperature checks, passenger questionnaires and hand-sanitizing stations would be introduced at departure points, and called on travelers to monitor themselves for symptoms such as fever.

Marburg is transmitted to humans from fruit bats, and is part of the so-called filovirus family that also includes Ebola.

There are currently no officially approved vaccines and no antiviral treatments, but potential treatments, including blood products, immune and drug therapies are being evaluated.

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