The Minister of Health, Dr Sabin Nsanzimana, has said the Marburg virus that led to an outbreak on September 27 came from a cave where mining activities had been ongoing.
Initial findings of genomic sequencing indicated that the virus, which is transmitted by fruit bats, had come from animal to human, without passing through multiple hosts.
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"We managed to trace back and find that this outbreak came from zoonotic origin. And we were able to find the cave where these particular fruit buds were living with human activity, particularly, mining ... and that's where we found our index case," Dr Nsanzimana said, without specifying where the cave is located.
Dr Nsanzimana said the One Health Initiative, a global strategy aimed at promoting interdisciplinary collaboration and communication about health care for humans, animals and the environment, was a crucial part in identifying the origin of the virus.
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"The current focus for us is to ensure that these fruit bats living in caves are not interacting with humans, and we also ensure that what happens here is very important information for public health or science that can be useful for other parts of the world," the minister said.
The genomic sequence indicated that the Marburg virus resembled previous strains, particularly on reported in the region in 2014.
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The current Marburg virus outbreak is the first to be reported in Rwanda. Health authorities have confirmed 65 cases of the Marburg virus and 15 deaths since September 27.
The death toll from the Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda remains at 24 per cent, lower that the average 50 per cent. The fatality rate on previous outbreaks reached as high 88 per cent.
Up to 47 patients have recovered and three remained under treatment as of Saturday, October 26.
No new deaths have been reported since October 15. Officials have said that there's "almost zero risk" that the virus could spread to other countries.
