The World Health Organization (WHO) says it must “stop the spread of the virus.” Marburg virus disease is transmitted to people through fruit bats and from person to person through bodily fluids. cases are extremely rare. The last major outbreak in Angola was in 2005. This is a serious and generally fatal disease that can cause fever and bleeding disorders.
Samples taken from the patient in Guinea, who has since died, were tested in the country’s laboratories, and returned a positive result for the Marburg virus.
It was identified in Guéckédou, the same region where recent Ebola cases were found in an outbreak which is now over.
The WHO’s Africa director Dr Matshidiso Moeti said the virus had the potential to “spread far and wide”.
But she praised “the alertness and the quick investigative action by Guinea’s health workers”.
Efforts are now under way to find people who may have been in contact with the man who died.
Four high-risk contacts, including a health worker, have been identified, in addition to 146 others who could be at risk, expert Dr Krutika Kuppalli, who has been following the case, told the BBC.
The systems in place in Guinea and neighbouring countries to control recent Ebola outbreaks are being taken up again in response to the Marburg virus.
In Africa, outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, the WHO says.
More than 200 people died from the Marburg virus outbreak in Angola in 2005.
