Rwanda administers vaccine doses in trial amid Marburg virus outbreak

Rwanda is trialling vaccine doses against the Marburg virus as authorities work to end an outbreak of the deadly virus.

The East African country received 700 doses of a vaccine candidate from the United States-based Sabin Vaccine Institute on Saturday.

“Per the approved protocol, approximately 700 high-risk adults, starting with health care providers, will be dosed at six clinical trial sites in Rwanda,” the institute said in a statement.

The single-dose vaccine is currently in phase two trials in Uganda and Kenya with no current safety concerns, the institute added.

Marburg, a haemorrhagic fever like Ebola, has so far killed 12 people after the outbreak was first declared on September 27.

Rwanda’s health ministry said in its latest virus update on Sunday that there are 49 confirmed cases.

The virus is believed to originate in fruit bats and spread between people through close contact with an infected individual’s bodily fluids or with surfaces, such as contaminated bed sheets.

There is no authorised vaccine or treatment for Marburg and the virus can be fatal in up to 88 per cent of people who get sick with the disease.

Symptoms of Marburg virus include fever, muscle pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and, in some cases, death through extreme blood loss.

In Rwanda, most of the sick are health workers in six out of the country’s 30 districts. Some patients live in districts bordering Congo, Burundi, Uganda, and Tanzania, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Rwandans have been urged to avoid physical contact to help curb the spread.

Strict measures include the suspension of school and hospital visits as well as a restriction on the number of those who can attend funerals for Marburg victims. Home vigils aren’t allowed in the event a death is linked to Marburg.