read from nature
Health officials worldwide are sprinting to test whether experimental vaccines can protect against a deadly illness, after Equatorial Guinea confirmed its first outbreak of Marburg virus disease on 13 February. The virus is related to Ebola, and causes similar symptoms of haemorrhagic fever. It has a fatality rate of up to 88%.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, convened an urgent meeting yesterday to discuss the feasibility of testing Marburg vaccines that are in various stages of development. But the odds are against a successful trial, they say, because other control measures such as quarantine could end the outbreak before a single vaccine dose can be administered.
“I cannot emphasize enough the need for speed,” said John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, at the WHO meeting.
The outbreak is in the north of Equatorial Guinea, in the Kié-Ntem province, which borders Cameroon and Gabon. It has been linked to 9 deaths among 25 suspected cases, with the first known case dating to early January. This makes it larger than many of the 16 Marburg outbreaks that have previously been detected, Edmunds tells Nature. “Outbreaks have tended to be small and finish relatively quickly after effective interventions have been put in place.”
Health officials worldwide are sprinting to test whether experimental vaccines can protect against a deadly illness, after Equatorial Guinea confirmed its first outbreak of Marburg virus disease on 13 February. The virus is related to Ebola, and causes similar symptoms of haemorrhagic fever. It has a fatality rate of up to 88%.
The World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, convened an urgent meeting yesterday to discuss the feasibility of testing Marburg vaccines that are in various stages of development. But the odds are against a successful trial, they say, because other control measures such as quarantine could end the outbreak before a single vaccine dose can be administered.
“I cannot emphasize enough the need for speed,” said John Edmunds, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, at the WHO meeting.
The outbreak is in the north of Equatorial Guinea, in the Kié-Ntem province, which borders Cameroon and Gabon. It has been linked to 9 deaths among 25 suspected cases, with the first known case dating to early January. This makes it larger than many of the 16 Marburg outbreaks that have previously been detected, Edmunds tells Nature. “Outbreaks have tended to be small and finish relatively quickly after effective interventions have been put in place.”
