UNIABUJA Hospital Debunks Alleged Outbreak Of Marburg Virus

The management of University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada has debunked the report of Marburg virus outbreak in the hospital.

There were social media reports that the hospital had issued a memo alerting on Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) outbreak in the facility.

Reacting to the reports, the hospital’s   deputy director, information, Sani Suleiman, said that the leaked memo was meant to be an internal memo for the hospital community.

He said the memo was issued by the hospital to alert the staff members on the MVD and the surge in COVID-19 in the country.

The memo titled: “Outbreak of Marburg disease and COVID-19 virus  infection” reads in part, “The management of University of Abuja Teaching Hospital wishes to notify the entire hospital community of an outbreak of Marburg disease and upsurge in COVID-19 infection.

“Consequently, the attention of all Head of Departments and members of staff is hereby drawn to ensure adequate surveillance and hygiene by observing all protocols of prevention.

“Please circulate for more information as prevention is better than cure.

“More details will be sent on our various social media platforms on the outbreak in due course.”

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (CNDC) had said that Nigeria was at moderate risk of importation of Marburg virus disease, following the declaration of an outbreak of the disease in Ghana on July 17.

The centre has, therefore, urged Nigerians to adhere strictly to preventive measures, including avoiding non-essential travel to locations where the outbreak is reported for the moment.

On the symptoms, NCDC said, “The initial symptoms include sudden onset of high fever (Temp ≥37.5OC), chills, 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.

“Increase in severity of 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 haemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction and/or failure.

“In fatal cases, death occurs often between eight and nine days after symptom onset. The case fatality rate for MVD is estimated to be 24 per cent to 88 per cent.

“The Marburg virus is known to persist in the body – placenta, amniotic fluid, foetus of infected pregnant women, breast milk of women who were infected while breastfeeding and semen of persons who have recovered from MVD.”

It however, assured that Nigeria has the resources (human, technical and laboratory) for prompt identification and management in the event of a single imported case.