Health ministry calls for strict surveillance on Marburg virus disease

The move came amidst the unpredictable outbreak of the Marburg virus in African countries.

The ministry urged provincial/municipal Centers for Disease Control to actively and closely monitor those with travel records to the affected areas and regularly update information about countries and territories that reportedly had Marburg cases.

Centers for Disease Control need to prepare areas dedicated to temporarily quarantine suspected or infection cases (if any).

Marburg is a dangerous infectious disease caused by the Marburg virus, transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through human-to-human transmission. That causes a severe hemorrhagic fever.

The disease has a high potential transmission risk and fatality rate of over 80 percent without vaccines or treatment drugs.

According to the World Health Organization, as of October 11, Rwanda had recorded 58 infection cases, including 13 deaths from the Marburg virus disease.

Several countries such as China, the U.S. and South Korea have deployed measures to prevent the disease, said Ministry of Health