Marburg virus confirmed in Guinea
On 6 August 2021, the Ministry of Health of Guinea informed the World Health Organization (WHO) of a confirmed case of Marburg virus disease (MVD)
The village where the patient resided is near both Sierra Leone and Liberian borders. This is the first known case of Marburg virus disease in Guinea and in West Africa. The patient had onset of symptoms on 25 July. On 1 August, he attended a small health facility near his village of residence.
On 2 August 2021, he died in the community and an alert was raised by the sub-prefecture public healthcare facility to the prefectorial department of health in Guéckédou and on 9 August the Institut Pasteur Dakar in Senegal provided confirmation that the result was positive for Marburg virus disease and negative for Ebola virus disease.
Health officials are preventing a further spread
The Ministry of Health, together with the WHO and other partners, have initiated measures to control the outbreak and prevent further spread. Contact tracing is ongoing, along with active case searching in health facilities and at the community level. Three family members and a healthcare worker were identified as high-risk close contacts and their health is being monitored.
The most recent Ebola virus disease outbreak in Guinea was declared over on 19 June 2021 and a network of community health workers was set up as part of this recent outbreak. This team has now been repurposed to support the government’s response activities to this outbreak of Marburg.