Thailand has not imposed a travel ban on tourists from Equatorial Guinea regardless of the outbreak of the extremely infectious Marburg Virus Disease (MVD), a deadly virus similar to Ebola.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) reported the first-ever outbreak of MVD on Monday, February thirteen, in Equatorial Guinea. Nine people have died and 200 high-risk individuals have been quarantined, reported Thai PBS.
According to Equatorial Guinea Health Minister Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba, the deaths are believed to be related to a funeral that took place within the Nsok Nsomo district within the Kie-Ntem province.
The native health authorities first reported circumstances of hemorrhagic fever of unknown origin on February 7, and samples had been sent to a laboratory in Senegal. The WHO confirmed that one of the samples examined positive for MVD. Contact tracing is being carried out, and suspected cases are being isolated and treated.
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa, said…
“Thanks to the fast and decisive action by the Equatorial Guinean authorities in confirming the illness, emergency response can get to full steam shortly.”
Fruit bats are believed to be massive spreaders of MVD.
Thailand’s Disease Control Department instructed worldwide disease management checkpoints in any respect ports of entry into the nation to display all arrivals from countries currently reported to be affected by MVD as a precautionary measure, though the division didn’t reveal how they might impose it given 1000’s of vacationers are actually flooding through the kingdom’s worldwide airports.
Dr Tares Krassanairawiwong yesterday reported the WHO had recorded one other two instances, plus 42 more probably circumstances, in Cameroon, which borders Equatorial Guinea.
“In Reliable , MVD is classified as one of thirteen dangerous infectious ailments, in accordance with the Infectious Diseases Act, although the illness has not but been detected within the country.”
Dr Sophon Iamsirithavorn, the Deputy Director-General of the Department of Disease Control in Thailand, stated that no travel bans have been imposed on Equatorial Guinea or Cameroon. However, screening measures have been heightened for travellers arriving from these African international locations. If an incoming passenger is suspected of getting an infection, well being officials will take fluid samples for testing and inform the person of the outcomes within three hours.
Symptoms of the infection can happen quickly, within two to 21 days after exposure. Early symptoms embrace fever, chills, headache, and muscle pain. Around 5 days after the onset of symptoms, a maculopapular rash might seem, particularly on the trunk of the body. Other signs could embody nausea, vomiting, chest ache, sore throat, abdominal ache, and diarrhoea. The illness can progress to extra severe symptoms such as jaundice, pancreatitis, significant weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, huge bleeding, and multi-organ failure.
MVD can have a fatality fee of up to 88%, based on the WHO. There are no vaccines or antiviral remedies approved to treat it..