Uganda confirms a Marburg virus case in a toddler, detected through the surveillance set up for its ongoing Ebola outbreak
Health teams in western Uganda already fighting Ebola now face a second hemorrhagic fever. A Marburg virus case was confirmed in a toddler in Kyegegwa District, caught through Ebola surveillance. Marburg has no approved vaccine. Per Africa CDC, no contacts have shown symptoms so
Health teams in western Uganda are now managing two hemorrhagic fevers at once. While the region works through an Ebola outbreak, authorities have confirmed a case of Marburg virus disease in Kyegegwa District, in a child under two years old. The case was identified through the disease surveillance network established for Ebola, meaning the monitoring aimed at one outbreak caught a separate and equally dangerous pathogen. Marburg is a filovirus in the same family as Ebola. It causes severe hemorrhagic fever and has no approved vaccine or specific treatment, so even a single confirmed case triggers an immediate containment response. According to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the case currently appears isolated. Contacts are being traced and monitored, none have developed symptoms so far, and no other active case has been reported in the country. Running contact tracing, isolation and laboratory work for two filoviruses in the same region draws on the same teams, beds and testing pipelines. Uganda last faced Marburg in 2017, in Kween district, so its responders have handled the virus before. The early detection here rested on surveillance that was already running for another outbreak. Source: STAT News / Africa CDC