Some travelers entering the US will be tested for a deadly Ebola-like disease amid an unprecedented outbreak in East Africa.
Starting next week, the CDC will screen people who have been in Rwanda in the past 21 days for the Marburg virus, a deadly infection that kills nearly nine in 10 patients.
Passengers arriving from the disease-hit country will divert their journey to the US to Chicago O’Hare, JFK in New York or Washington Dulles in Virginia, where they will be tested for the virus.
The CDC has deployed three scientists to investigate the outbreak in Rwanda, which has so far led to a dozen deaths and 46 infections.
Marburg has a mortality rate of up to 90 percent. There are currently no vaccines or treatments approved to treat the virus
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The US has also shipped hundreds of experimental vaccines and therapies to help combat the crisis.
Americans are being urged not to travel to Rwanda unless it is essential, with the East African country under a Level 2 travel warning.
Both Marburg and Ebola cause viral hemorrhagic fever – conditions that can cause internal bleeding and damage multiple organ systems.
Symptoms appear abruptly, including severe headache, fever, diarrhea, stomach pain and vomiting. They are becoming more and more serious.
In the early stages of MVD – the disease that causes Marburg – it is very difficult to distinguish it from other tropical diseases, such as Ebola and malaria.
Infected patients become ‘ghost-like’ and often develop sunken eyes and expressionless faces.
But in later stages, bleeding from multiple orifices – including the nose, gums, eyes and vagina – can occur.
Like Ebola, even dead bodies can spread the virus to people exposed to its fluids.
The disease is spread between people through contact with bodily fluids, such as saliva, blood, semen, sweat or feces.
People can also contract it by touching towels or surfaces that could also come into contact with an infected person.
There are no approved vaccines or treatments for the disease, which is currently treated with supportive care such as rest, hydration and oxygen.
Marburg virus (MVD) is initially transmitted to humans from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the body fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials.
Four candidate vaccines have been evaluated by the WHO for possible use in trials, but only one, made by the nonprofit Sabin Vaccine Institute, has data from early human trials showing it is safe and leads to an immune response.
Further testing of the vaccines outside the outbreak setting is not possible due to the risks involved.
The Sabin Vaccine Institute said on Saturday it had delivered about 700 doses of its vaccine to Rwanda, for use in a trial targeting frontline workers, including healthcare professionals.
The Marburg virus has only been spotted once in the US when, in 2008, a 44-year-old Colorado woman who had just returned from a two-week safari in Uganda was diagnosed with the disease.
The woman had visited a fruit bat cave, where the bats were known to harbor the disease. She was hospitalized but made a full recovery.