RiseRwanda has recorded its 63rd Marburg case, while cases of children coinfected with both mpox and measles are rising in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to officials at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) weekly media briefing on Thursday.

After 10 days of no new cases, a health worker who has been caring for Marburg patients tested positive for the virus on Wednesday night, Rwandan Health Minister Dr Sabin Nsanzimana told the briefing.

But the health worker was vaccinated a few days ago and is “doing well” with disease presentation that was “not usual”, Nsanzimana added.

“The good thing is that the person has been in a treatment centre and has no contacts outside the centre,” he added. 

Meanwhile, the source of the Marburg outbreak has been traced to fruit bats in a cave where the index case had been mining, said Nsanzimana.

Once this had been confirmed, all human activity at the cave had been stopped and the government is following up on the people working there, to make sure they they don’t develop the disease, he added.

Genome sequencing of the virus confirmed that it was both very close to the zoonotic source – the virus in the bats – and to other Marburg cases imported into the country.

This underscored the importance of a One Health approach involving experts on human and animal health and the environment, said Nsanzimana.

Mpox testing slowly improving

Some 2,729 new mpox cases were reported in the past week – over 90% of which in DRC and Burundi, although Liberia, Kenya and Uganda reported new cases, according to Dr Ngashi Ngongo, Africa CDC’s lead on mpox.