The report of a Marburg virus outbreak in the hospital has been refuted by the management of the University of Abuja Teaching Hospital, Gwagwalada.

There were claims on social media that the hospital had sent out a memo warning about an MVD outbreak there.

The hospital’s deputy director of information, Sani Suleiman, responded to the reports by stating that the leaked memo was intended to be an internal message for the hospital community.

He said that the hospital had sent out the letter to inform the personnel about the MVD and the rise in COVID-19 cases across the country.

The memo titled: “Outbreak of Marburg disease and COVID-19 virus infection” reads in part, “The management of University of Abuja Teaching Hospital wishes to notify the entire hospital community of an outbreak of Marburg disease and upsurge in COVID-19 infection.

“Consequently, the attention of all Head of Departments and members of staff is hereby drawn to ensure adequate surveillance and hygiene by observing all protocols of prevention.

“Please circulate for more information as prevention is better than cure.

“More details will be sent on our various social media platforms on the outbreak in due course.”

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (CNDC) had said that Nigeria was at moderate risk of importation of Marburg virus disease, following the declaration of an outbreak of the disease in Ghana on July 17.

The centre has, therefore, urged Nigerians to adhere strictly to preventive measures, including avoiding non-essential travel to locations where the outbreak is reported for the moment.

On the symptoms, NCDC said, “The initial symptoms include sudden onset of high fever (Temp ≥37.5OC), chills, headache, body aches which may be accompanied by a rash, most prominent on the chest, back and stomach, nausea/vomiting, chest pain, sore throat, abdominal pain by the fifth day of illness.

“Increase in severity of the illness can be heralded by the appearance of severe watery diarrhea, jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, bleeding from multiple areas, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction and/or failure.

“In fatal cases, death occurs often between eight and nine days after symptom onset. The case fatality rate for MVD is estimated to be 24 percent to 88 percent.

The Marburg virus is known to stay in the body, including the placenta, amniotic fluid, fetus, breast milk, and semen of those who have recovered from MVD who were infected while breastfeeding.

In the event of a single imported case, it guaranteed that Nigeria has the resources (human, technical, and laboratory) for quick identification and management.