CNN
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Cameroonian government detected two suspected instances of Marburg illness on Monday in Olamze, a commune at the border with Equatorial Guinea, the general public well being delegate for the area, Robert Mathurin Bidjang, stated on Tuesday.
Equatorial Guinea formally declared its first outbreak of the Marburg virus, an sickness very similar to Ebola, on Monday.
Neighboring Cameroon had limited motion alongside the border to keep away from contagion following stories of an unknown, fatal hemorrhagic fever in Equatorial Guinea closing week.
“On the 13th of February, we had two suspected cases. These are two 16-year-old children, a boy and a girl, who have no previous travel history to the affected areas in Equatorial Guinea,” Bidjang stated at a gathering in Cameroon’s capital Yaounde.
Forty-two individuals who got here into touch with the 2 kids had been known and phone tracing was once ongoing, he added.
The World Health Organization (WHO) stated previous on Tuesday that it was once expanding its epidemiological surveillance in Equatorial Guinea.
The small Central African nation has to this point reported 9 deaths in addition to 16 suspected instances of Marburg virus illness, with signs together with fever, fatigue, and blood-stained vomit and diarrhea, in step with the WHO.
“Surveillance in the field has been intensified,” stated George Ameh, WHO’s nation consultant in Equatorial Guinea.
“Contact tracing, as you know, is a cornerstone of the response. We have…redeployed the COVID-19 teams that were there for contact tracing and quickly retrofitted them to really help us out.”
Equatorial Guinea quarantined greater than 200 other folks and limited motion closing week in its Kie-Ntem province, the place the hemorrhagic fever was once first detected.
Marburg virus is a extremely infectious illness that may have a fatality price of as much as 88%, in step with the WHO. There aren’t any vaccines or antiviral remedies licensed to regard it.
“We’re working on a 30-day response plan where we should be able to quantify what are the exact measures and quantify what are the exact needs,” Ameh stated.
He added that the rustic’s government had now not reported any new suspected instances within the closing 48 hours.
