Rwanda has launched the world’s first clinical trial for a treatment targeting the Ebola-like Marburg virus, which has claimed the lives of more than a dozen people in the country, the World Health Organization announced on Tuesday
“Encouraging news from Rwanda,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
He praised the country for initiating the “world’s first clinical trial for Marburg virus disease” in collaboration with his agency, utilizing a drug that has been used to treat Covid-19.
The Marburg outbreak was first reported in Rwanda in late September, with a vaccination program using a trial vaccine launched earlier this month.
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The African Union’s health agency stated last Thursday that the outbreak has been brought under control.
As of that time, the small nation in the Great Lakes region had recorded up to 58 cases of the disease, resulting in 13 fatalities, according to Rwandan Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana.
He noted that 12 people had recovered, while over 2,700 individuals had been tested.
Marburg is transmitted to humans from fruit bats and belongs to the filovirus family, which also includes Ebola.He noted that 12 people had recovered, while over 2,700 individuals had been tested.
With a fatality rate of up to 88 percent, Marburg’s highly infectious hemorrhagic fever often leads to severe symptoms, including bleeding and organ failure.
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Currently, there are no officially approved vaccines or antiviral treatments; however, potential therapies, including blood products, immune treatments, and drug therapies, are being evaluated.
The WHO stated on X that the new treatment trial “involves testing the safety and efficacy of Remdesivir—a drug already used to treat COVID-19—and MBP091, a specialized antibody designed to combat the Marburg virus.”
“This trial is the result of two years’ work by nearly 200 researchers, developers, ministry of health officials and partners globally and from 17 African countries at risk of outbreaks of filoviruses such as Ebola and Marburg,” it added.
