NAIROBI, Nov. 19 — Kenya said on Tuesday its health authorities are on high alert following three deaths related to Marburg virus disease (MVD) in neighboring Ethiopia. The Kenya National Public Health Institute (KNPHI) said that while Kenya has no reported cases, the country remains at high risk due to significant cross-border movements from Ethiopia through international airports and land border points, making the risk of importation into the country a public health concern. “Given the high case fatality rate associated with MVD, counties are urged to strengthen the following measures to safeguard the health of Kenya‘s members of the public,” the KNPHI said in an advisory issued in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. The institute advised counties to sensitize health workers on the standard case definition for viral hemorrhagic fever and should strengthen monitoring at points of entry, health facilities, and communities to rapidly detect and report suspected cases. The advisory came after Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health confirmed an MVD outbreak in Jinka in the southern region, the first of its kind in the country. In the African region, previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda, according to the KNPHI. The Marburg virus, a highly infectious pathogen with a high fatality rate, causes hemorrhagic fever. Symptoms, including high fever and severe headache, typically appear within a week of exposure. It belongs to the same virus family as Ebola, according to the World Health Organization.
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