Kazakhstan has taken steps to forestall the introduction and unfold of Marburg virus, citing a WHO warning
The well being authorities in Kazakhstan have launched necessary physique temperature checks of passengers arriving within the nation’s airports from overseas, based on an announcement on Monday. This comes amid an outbreak of a extremely infectious and probably deadly illness in Africa.
The sickness, often called Marburg virus illness (MVD), begins with signs corresponding to nausea, vomiting, sore throat, and belly ache. In some instances, sufferers die via excessive blood loss. The virus spreads between individuals via contact with bodily fluids or with surfaces, corresponding to contaminated bedsheets.
Marburg is from the identical household of viruses as Ebola however has been described as extra extreme.
In keeping with the World Well being Group (WHO), the illness has a fatality charge of as much as 88%. An outbreak of MVD was confirmed final month by the well being authorities in Rwanda.
Kazakhstan’s well being officers have cited a warning issued by WHO final week stating that there’s a excessive threat of the outbreak spreading past the East African nation.
“With a purpose to forestall the virus from getting into and spreading in [Kazakhstan]… non-contact temperature measurement of all arriving passengers is carried out at worldwide airports,” Chief Sanitary Physician Sarhat Beisenova has stated.
No less than 46 instances of MVD have been reported in Rwanda, primarily amongst well being employees. No less than 12 individuals have died from the illness for the reason that outbreak was declared on September 27. On Sunday, Rwanda introduced a vaccination drive.
The virus is called after the German metropolis the place it was first detected in 1967. Scientists grew to become sick whereas dealing with monkeys imported from Africa in what have been the primary identified instances of MVD. The virus is carried by the Egyptian fruit bat, a kind of bat present in mines and caves.
The Kazakh authorities have warned towards visiting caves and mines, and coming into shut contact with wild animals in Africa.
MVD outbreaks have been additionally beforehand registered in Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania, Angola, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, and South Africa.
“Individuals are coming into nearer contact with wildlife all over the place on the earth,” Dr. Amira A. Roess, a professor of worldwide well being and epidemiology at George Mason College, informed the New York Instances. “Wildlife is adapting to contact with people. It’s worrisome,” she added.
Final week, the WHO assessed the chance of outbreak as very excessive on the nationwide stage, excessive on the regional stage, and low on the international stage.
Russian well being officers have since acknowledged that MVD may attain the nation however stated it could not unfold.
No confirmed instances of MVD associated to the Rwanda outbreak have been reported within the US or different nations exterior of the East African nation, the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention stated final week.
