Thread by @HelenBranswell

1. @WHO has finally issued an update on the #Marburg situation in Equatorial Guinea. The "finally" is not criticism of WHO. They issue these with info provided by an affected country & sometimes countries are not eager to share information.
The situation is complex.
A 🧵

2. There has only been 1 confirmed case of #Marburg so far, but that is mainly because 8 other people suspected of having had the disease died without testing. This is Equatorial Guinea's first #Marburg outbreak & @WHO is concerned about the country's capacity to cope.

3. There have been no cases in health workers yet, a blessing given 1 of the people who died was in a health care setting at death. People who are dying of Marburg are teeming with virus; preparing bodies for burial often results in infection, which may have been the case here.

4. The 9 confirmed, probable & suspect cases were 1 person who died of #Marburg-like disease on. Jan. 7 & 8 people who had contact with that individual, one of whom tested positive. 34 contacts of those people are being monitored, but @WHO says there may be undetected spread.

5. Among the complications here is that the #Marburg cases occurred in a part of Equatorial Guinea that is near its borders with Cameroon & Gabon. The borders are porous & cross-border travel frequent, hence there's a risk this outbreak will involve cases in more than 1 country.

6. The @WHO's update is welcome. Here's hoping there will be more information forthcoming soon. who.int/emergencies/di…

5.