SWITZERLAND — The World Health Organization (WHO) plans to expedite the testing of multiple Marburg candidate vaccines in response to recent outbreaks of the rare and deadly viral hemorrhagic fever in Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea.
According to WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the organization is leading efforts to evaluate candidate vaccines and therapeutics in the context of the outbreak.
He also mentioned that the developers are on board, the clinical trial protocols are ready, and the experts and donors are ready to proceed.
Dr. Ana Maria Restrepo, who heads the WHO’s R&D Blueprint team, added that four or five candidate vaccines are already prepared for human trials.
Restrepo also highlighted that a cooperative Marburg consortium has been working together since the Equatorial Guinea outbreak was confirmed in January.
She emphasized the use of a platform involving all regulatory and ethics committees in Africa. WHO’s R&D Blueprint notes that there are 28 potential candidate vaccines for Marburg.
Tedros stated that Marburg belongs to the same family of viruses as Ebola, has similar symptoms, transmits the same way, and has an 88% fatality rate.
He also underscored that careful contact tracing, isolation, and supportive care are crucial to prevent transmission and save lives.
Tanzania reports its first case of Marburg Virus Disease
According to Tedros, the country has confirmed eight cases, including five deaths. The samples were tested at a WHO-supported mobile laboratory set up last year to prepare for viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks, including Ebola and Marburg.
National responders, WHO, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have been deployed to the affected region for further investigations, monitoring of contacts, and clinical care.
A week ago, Tanzanian health authorities initiated a search for the cause of a mysterious disease that had claimed several lives in the country.
Five of the eight cases, including a health worker, have died, and the remaining three are receiving treatment. A total of 161 contacts have been identified and are under monitoring.
Tanzania Chief Medical Officer Tumaini Nagu stated that multiple isolation units are operational to monitor and isolate people displaying symptoms.
Nagu also said that the government is closely monitoring the situation and taking appropriate measures to contain the disease.
Meanwhile, Equatorial Guinea has faced difficulties in identifying Marburg virus cases due to a lack of laboratory capacity.
However, the country has confirmed nine cases with 20 probable cases. The first case from Kié-Ntem province was confirmed by the Institute Pasteur in Senegal in February, and two other people from the same province were diagnosed by a mobile laboratory.
A case was later identified in Litoral province, which was epidemiologically linked to a confirmed case in Kié-Ntem, while cases have also been confirmed in Centro Sur province.
The WHO has noted the potential for undetected community spread of the virus due to the wide geographic distribution of cases and uncertain epidemiological links.
Equatorial Guinea shares international borders with Cameroon and Gabon, and the WHO is working with these countries to identify any potential cases.
The Africa CDC is providing the necessary technical support, infrastructural development, and capacity building required to test for Marburg virus disease.
Dr. Ahmed Ouma, the acting director of Africa CDC, stated at a press briefing on Thursday that the center is supporting Equatorial Guinea by providing technical assistance, developing infrastructure, and building capacity to test for Marburg virus disease.
He clarified that the government is responsible for testing and releasing the results to Africa CDC.
Currently, the turnaround time for results is five days, but this is being improved upon by authorities and partners.
Dr. Ouma acknowledged that the main lab is still not fully functional and is undergoing calibration and capacity building. He expects the main lab to be up and running in a few days after the completion of these tasks.
Once the main lab is fully operational, it will make it easier to process more samples and speed up the testing process.
Health authorities are expecting genomic analysis results soon to see whether there is any connection between the outbreaks in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania.
The confirmation of new cases is a critical signal to scale up response efforts to quickly stop the chain of transmission and avert a potential large-scale outbreak and loss of life, according to Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
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