Epidemiologists urge travel ban to prevent spread of Marburg virus

AMMAN — Epidemiologists and health experts are urging authorities to ban travel from areas infected with the recent spread of the Marburg virus to Jordan, and are urging authorities to take all necessary measures to confront the spread of the virus within the Kingdom. 

Raeda Qutob, president of the National Centre for Epidemic Control, told The Jordan Times the centre, in cooperation with the Health Ministry, is closely following up on the global developments of the Marburg virus and is taking all the necessary precautions.

“It is not clear yet whether the ministry will take measures to prevent travellers coming from countries affected by the virus from entering Jordan or not,” Qutob added. 

Incidences of Marburg viruses have only been observed in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania. 

Mohamed Hassan Tarawneh, a respiratory, infectious diseases and intensive care consultant, urged authorities to take measures to control passenger traffic.

 “First and foremost, ban travellers from Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania from entering Jordan,” he recommended. 

“Marburg virus is one of the deadliest viruses, mortality rate reaches up to 88 per cent,” Tarawneh told The Jordan Times. 

He noted that the virus is transmitted from human to human through direct and indirect contact with infected bodily fluids. 

“The virus can also be contracted by physical contact with surfaces contaminated with the infected bodily fluids,” Tarawneh said.  

“The incubation period of the virus is between 2-21 days. However, symptoms begin to appear suddenly,” Tarawneh added. 

There is no treatment or vaccine for the virus, Tarawneh said. Patents are given fluids when blood pressure drops, and medications to control fever when body temperature rises.

Abdel Rahman Shaher, former health director at the Health Ministry, said that clinically diagnosing the Marburg virus can be difficult.

He urged the Health Ministry to have enough reserve of antigen tests to be able to test passengers coming from Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania to Jordan, particularly passengers who had been there for longer than three weeks. 

Shaher stated that symptoms of the virus vary, from nausea, vomiting and chest pain, to a sore throat. Abdominal pain and diarrhoea may appear as well, he added. However, symptoms become increasingly severe and can include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive haemorrhaging and multi-organ dysfunction. 

“The virus can be detected through antigen-capture detection tests, similar to the testing method used for COVID,” Shaher added. 

Derar Hasan Balawi, an associate clinical professor, infectious diseases specialist and consultant pharmacotherapist, told The Jordan Times that the Marburg virus was originally identified in 1967. It was found that year during a series of outbreaks in the German cities of Marburg and Frankfurt, as well as in Belgrade, the capital of former Yugoslavia.

“The Marburg virus is a member of the same family of viruses as Ebola,” Balawi added.

Marburg affects both humans and primates, causing a severe haemorrhagic fever that affects several organ systems and may result in copious bleeding, Balawi said.

“The viral infection is a zoonotic disease, which means that the disease is contracted by animals and then spread to people. In prior outbreaks, fruit bats were shown to be the hosts of the Marburg virus, from which humans contract the disease,” he added.

“Case mortality rates have fluctuated from 24 per cent to 88 per cent in past outbreaks, with an average death rate of roughly 50 per cent,” Balawi added.

Balawi stated that patients may bleed from the nose, gums, and eyes, and blood may be present in vomit, urine and stool. Shock and death can result from severe blood loss, he added.

Unlike COVID-19, The Marburg virus is not an airborne virus. The virus is also much easier to track than COVID-19, as COVID-19 can be spread by asymptomatic carriers.