Nigeria is unlikely to record an outbreak of Marburg virus, the Federal Government has disclosed, days after a case of the highly dangerous disease, which causes haemorrhagic fever was recently confirmed in Guinea.
Speaking during an interview on Friday, the Director-General of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Dr Chikwe Ihekweazu, stated that the government was closely monitoring the situation and a risk analysis team had evaluated that the risk for Nigeria was low at the moment.
Speaking further, he added that facilities had been put in place to detect potential cases, as they are also monitoring entrants and air and sea ports.
The NCDC boss also explained that the agency was working with the West Africa health organisation and Africa’s Centre for Disease Control to provide the needed support to combat the deadly virus.
On the roles Nigerians could play to avoid the spread of the virus, Ihekweazu advised on avoiding crowded places, using of facemasks, and optimal hygiene practices.
According to studies, Maburg virus is part of the filovirus family to which the Ebola virus also belongs.
The average fatality rate of Maburg virus is 50 per cent, in a range of 24-88 per cent and it takes its name from the German city of Marburg where it was first identified in a lab where workers had been in contact with infected green monkeys that had been imported from Uganda.
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