Equatorial Guinea announced its first outbreak this week of the rare and deadly Marburg disease — a hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola. Nine deaths have been reported and one of those tested positive for Marburg. Samples weren’t available to confirm the presence of the virus for the other eight. Another 16 suspected cases of the virus have been admitted to health facilities in two districts in the western part of the country that borders Cameroon and Gabon. The world’s last outbreak of Marburg ended last September in Ghana.
There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved for the virus, but there are candidates — two of which have data from phase 1 trials and three others that haven’t reached that stage. Researchers from the Marburg Virus Vaccine Consortium held an emergency meeting on Tuesday to examine the prospect of quickly rolling out clinical trials amid the current outbreak.
A key purpose of the meeting was to determine how many vials of vaccine candidates are available for use and if they have bulk material that could be put into vials quickly. Representatives from Janssen said thousands of candidate vaccine doses might be available but additional stability testing was needed. Other developers offered up smaller batches.
About the author
Sara Jervingsarajerving
Sara Jerving is a Senior Reporter at Devex, where she covers global health. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, VICE News, and Bloomberg News among others. Sara holds a master's degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism where she was a Lorana Sullivan fellow. She was a finalist for One World Media's Digital Media Award in 2021; a finalist for the Livingston Award for Young Journalists in 2018; and she was part of a VICE News Tonight on HBO team that received an Emmy nomination in 2018. She received the Philip Greer Memorial Award from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 2014.
