KAMPALA, Oct. 19 (Xinhua) -- Uganda's health ministry on Thursday confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever in the eastern district of Kween.
Jane Aceng, minister of health, told reporters that one index case of a female who nursed a brother in September succumbed to the viral disease on Oct. 17 in Chemuron village, Moyok Parish, Keen district.
The minister said a response team led by Anthony Mbonye, the acting director of health services has been dispatched to Kween and Kapchorwa districts to contain the outbreak.
"Following laboratory tests conducted by Uganda Virus Institute, it was confirmed one person had died of Marburg virus disease. A response team and emergency supplies have been sent to contain the outbreak," said Aceng.
"There is no specific treatment or vaccine for Marburg but patients are given supportive treatment and must be sought early to survive," she added.
She said the ministry has set up isolation centers to handle all the suspected cases.
The last Marburg outbreak in Uganda was reported in central and western parts of the east African country in 2014.
Marburg is a severe and highly fatal disease caused by a virus from the same family as the one that causes Ebola hemorrhagic fever, according to the World Health Organization.
According to the global health body, the illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly, with severe headache and malaise.
Case fatality rates have varied greatly, from 25 percent in the initial laboratory-associated outbreak in 1967, to more than 80 percent in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1998-2000, to even higher in the outbreak that began in Angola in late 2004.
