KUWAIT: Kuwait Ministry of Health (MoH) recommended on Saturday “to avoid traveling to Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania.” This was after the announcement that the ministry is monitoring outbreaks of Marburg hemorrhagic fever virus in the two countries. In a statement, the Ministry of Health recommended that Kuwaitis should avoid the two countries and the neighboring countries and follow the preventive measures issued by the local health authorities so as to take the necessary preventive measures to reduce the risk of infection.

The Ministry of Health is currently following up with regional and international authorities on the latest developments as regards to the health situation there and the epidemiological situation of the disease around the world. According to the World Health Organization, the Marburg virus disease, which was first detected in 1967, has an incubation period of two to 21 days - and a mortality rate of 88 percent. The virus is spread through contact with the blood of an infected person, secretions and any other fluids excreted from the body.

The symptoms include; fever, severe headache, severe malaise, and on the third day the patient may develop severe watery diarrhea, abdominal pain, colic, nausea and vomiting. On the fifth and seventh days, many patients develop severe hemorrhagic symptoms. In fatal cases, death might occur between the eighth and ninth days.