Kasungu District Hospital has developed a three-month marburg outbreak emergency response plan which authorities say will help the district prevent and effectively respond to the viral disease in the event of an outbreak.

Kasungu District Hospital integrated disease surveillance and response coordinator Chrispin Thomo said this on Tuesday during a primary health emergency management meeting aimed at briefing stakeholders on the status of cholera and marburg in the district.

He said the M1 passing through Kasungu makes the district a busy corridor for travellers plying their trade between Malawi and Tanzania, making it prone to imported infections.

“We must be very clear here that there is no case of marburg in Kasungu, let alone in the country. There was an outbreak reported in Tanzania recently, but we understand that they dealt with it. However, we still have to be alert and prepare so that we are not caught off-guard in the event of an outbreak,” said Thomo.

He said marburg is highly fatal and there is need to put in place a good response plan that will help detect cases early and conduct rapid investigations and early laboratory verification of the cause of all suspected cases, including contact tracing and responding to alerts.

Between March and May this year, Tanzania reported nine cases of marburg virus which killed at least six people, representing a fatality rate of 67 percent.

According to the World Health Organisation, Tanzania Ministry of Health declared the end of the outbreak on June 2, 42 days after the last case was reported.

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