The Federal Government has urged Nigerians to avoid non-essential travels to locations where the outbreak of the Marburg virus disease (MVD) has been reported for the time being.
This advisory, among others, is coming from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) as the Ghanaian authorities declared an outbreak of the MVD, which was confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on the 17th of July 2022.
While the NCDC stated the overall risk of both importations of the disease and its potential impact on the Nigerian population is moderate, it urged Nigerians to avoid direct contact with blood, saliva, vomit, urine, and other bodily fluids of people with suspected or confirmed Marburg virus disease.
Also, the animal reservoir of the disease, which is the fruit bat and other sick animals, are to be avoided.
The Marburg virus causes a rare, highly infectious disease and severe hemorrhagic fever (MVD) in humans and non-human primates just like the Ebola virus, its closest relation and only other member of the Filoviridae family of viruses. It is another example of a zoonosis such as Lassa fever, etc. The natural animal reservoir/host are fruit bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus). Following the transmission from infected animals to humans, it spreads in humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, and contaminated materials and surfaces.
The initial symptoms of the disease include sudden onset of high fever (Temp 237.50C), chills, and headache, body aches, which may be accompanied by a rash, most prominent on the chest, back and stomach, nausea /vomiting, chest pain, sore throat, abdominal pain by the fifth day of illness.
An increase in severity of the illness can be heralded by the appearance of severe watery diarrhoea, jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, bleeding from multiple areas, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction and/or failure. In fatal cases, death occurs often between 8 and 9 days after symptom onset.
