The World Health Organization (WHO) raised to 11 the number of deaths in Equatorial Guinea due to already confirmed cases of the "Marburg virus", according to a statement dated April 16.
It is a very severe hemorrhagic disease, with high mortality, that triggers a hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, with the capacity to infect almost all organs, from the lymphoid to the brain.
According to the Europa Press News Agency , the WHO detected eleven deaths from the disease unleashed in eastern Equatorial Guinea, two more than in the previous balance, but published that "all the twenty-three additional cases, already identified as probable, ended up succumbing." to the other fatal figures, up to what could be estimated as a total of thirty-four deaths".
The WHO detailed that the outbreak, which began on February 13, has a special impact on the port city of Bata, Littoral province of the African country.
Marburg virus is transmitted to humans from fruit tree bats, and spreads between people through direct contact with infected blood, biological fluids of the infected, surfaces and materials, depending on the viral strain and case management. Symptoms include headaches, vomiting blood, and other muscle pain.
"There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat this lethal virus, which has already reached a mortality rate close to 88 percent," indicated the WHO report, which also cites the Télam agency .
There is no specific therapy for this disease; instead, supportive treatment (oral or intravenous rehydration) is performed to increase patient survival and symptomatic treatment is also used.
On the African continent, previous outbreak episodes and sporadic cases were recorded in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
