Health Ministry rules out Marburg virus in suspected Valencia case

The Ministry of Health has ruled out the presence of Marburg virus. in the patient suspected of Valencia after the analysis of the genetic test performed by scientists from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, which also ruled out the presence of Ebola virus.

The Valencia case was the only one under investigation in Spain following the Marburg virus outbreak detected on February 13 in Equatorial Guinea.

The patient at Hospital La Fe, a 34-year-old male, presented. symptoms compatible with the disease Marburg virus disease, similar to Ebola, and was in Equatorial Guinea for a period of time that could correspond to the incubation and development of the disease.

Early tests point to a negative, although se will repeat in the coming days to avoid false negatives. On the other hand, they are also isolated three sanitary who attended him at the health center.

Action protocol

For its part, the Ministry of Health has just published an action protocol for the “early detection and management” of patients with the Marburg virus, coinciding with the suspected case detected in Valencia that has just been ruled out.

In addition, sources from the Ministry of Health have emphasized this Saturday that “Spain has a network of high-level isolation units for high-risk infectious diseases” and that “early case detection” helps to avoid risks to the general population.

Outbreak, first outbreak of Marburg virus to be reported in Equatorial Guineawas detected on February 13 in the province of Kié-Ntem, in the western part of the continental part of the country bordering Cameroon and Gabon, after the World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed the death of at least nine people from the disease.

Marburg virus disease is as deadly as Ebola. and is estimated to have killed more than 3,500 people in Africa.

Like Ebola, this virus causes sudden hemorrhages and can lead to death within a few days.with an incubation period of 2 to 21 days and a mortality rate of up to 88%.

The disease, for which there is no vaccine or specific treatmentwas detected in 1967 in the German city of Marburg – origin of its name – by laboratory technicians who were infected while investigating monkeys brought from Uganda.