Here comes your 19th nervous break-out – of the Marburg virus

h/t Emily

From here:

'Unprecedented’ situation as two African countries report outbreaks of Marburg virus (france24.com)

(With apologies to the Rolling Stones! 19th Nervous Breakdown (Mono) - YouTube )

“For the first time, the world is seeing two simultaneous outbreaks of the Marburg virus – one in Equatorial Guinea, the other in Tanzania. The Marburg virus is just as deadly as Ebola, to which it is closely related, but it has been extremely rare until now.”

“The situation in Equatorial Guinea currently seems the most worrying. The World Health Organisation (WHO) issued an alert on February 25 after the discovery of several suspected deaths from Marburg in two villages in the north of the country in early January.”

The issue seems to be this:

“But the WHO has concerns that the official tallies are underestimating the disease’s real toll. Indeed, the cases in Equatorial Guinea come from regions quite far from each other, which suggests there “may be undetected community spread of the virus in the country”, the CDC noted.”

Health Alert Network (HAN) - 00489 | Marburg Virus Disease Outbreaks in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania (cdc.gov)

Here is the “how”.

From bat caves to humans

First detected in humans in 1967 in the German city of Marburg, the virus has broken out a dozen times in Africa since the late 1970s. But until recent years, the was never more than one outbreak every three or four years.

A bat – namely the Egyptian fruit bat – is the virus’s natural host, and transmits it to humans either directly or via an intermediate host such as monkeys.”

Those damned bats again! Let’s hope the Egyptian fruit bats have little in common with the Australian kind in Queensland which have a “speed of light” ability to turn fruit into excrement!

I wonder what the foreign (China, US, Russia, Cuba) military and worker presence is like in Equatorial Guinea or Mozambique – any chance of troops rotating back to their homeland as “carriers”?

Of course, the WHO workforce is at prime risk.

I don’t think the ambitions of the Equatorial Guineans coincide with the ambitions of the chicken littles seeking to ban farming in the West because “climate change”.

Foreign investments - EMBAJADA DE GUINEA ECUATORIAL (embajada-guinea-ecuatorial.com)

“The Gulf of Guinea supplies more than 5% of the world’s oil production, as all the major oil companies in the world are present in this area. Approximately 340,000 barrels / day of oil is extracted in Equatorial Guinea by the main oil extraction companies, including Hess, ExxonMobil, Marathon Oil and Noble Energy, in association with GePetrol.”

“Cattle breeding

Animal production includes chickens, ducks, pigs, goats, sheep, rabbits and guinea pigs.”

One would hope that the equivalent of biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) laboratory medical facilities are being used in both Equatorial Guinea and Mozambique. Having visited Maputo many times, somehow I doubt it (I wonder if the famous “Golf Club” party house for thousands is still operating?)

I haven’t seen any travel bans announced by any countries with foreign nationals in either country.

No doubt, the WHO will announce a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC – pronounced FAKE) any minute now.

Onwards!

Please upgrade to paid, or donate a coffee (I drink a lot of coffee) - “God Bless You!” if you can’t or don’t want to contribute. Coffee donations here: https://ko-fi.com/peterhalligan