Rwanda starts first-ever clinical trial for Marburg treatment

Rwanda has begun the world's first clinical trial for a treatment of the Ebola-like Marburg virus, which has killed more than a dozen people in the country, the World Health Organization said Tuesday.

"Encouraging news from Rwanda," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

He hailed that the country had launched the "world's first clinical trial for Marburg virus disease", in collaboration with his agency, involving the use of a drug used to treat Covid-19.

The Marburg outbreak was first announced in Rwanda in late September and a vaccination programme using a trial vaccine was launched earlier this month.

The African Union's health watchdog said last Thursday that the outbreak had been brought under control.

By then, the small nation in the Great Lakes region of Africa had recorded up to 58 cases of the disease, with 13 deaths, Rwandan Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said.

He said 12 people had recovered while more than 2,700 had been tested.

Marburg is transmitted to humans from fruit bats, and is part of the so-called filovirus family that includes Ebola.

With a fatality rate of up to 88 per cent, Marburg's highly infectious haemorrhagic fever is often accompanied by bleeding and organ failure.

There are currently no officially approved vaccines nor approved antiviral treatments, but potential treatments, including blood products, and immune and drug therapies are being evaluated.

WHO said on X that the new treatment trial "involves testing the safety and efficacy of Remdesivir -- a drug against viruses already used to treat Covid-19 and MBP091 -- a special antibody designed to fight Marburg virus".

"This trial is the result of two years' work by nearly 200 researchers, developers, ministry of health officials and partners globally and from 17 African countries at risk of outbreaks of filoviruses such as Ebola and Marburg," it added.