Rwanda Deploys Vaccine Against Deadly Marburg Virus

Rwanda has started to vaccinate health care workers against Marburg, a hemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola. Vaccine doses began being administered on Oct. 6 to health care workers and emergency responders at mobile clinics in the central African country, the Rwanda Ministry of Health said. No authorized vaccines or treatments exist for Marburg, a severe illness that, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), has an average fatality rate of around 50 percent. The U.S.-based Sabin Vaccine Institute said it sent about 700 investigational doses of its vaccine to Rwanda on Saturday at the request of the country’s officials. The vaccinations will take place under a trial agreement with the Rwanda Biomedical Centre and will target high-risk adults, primarily health care workers who have been responding to the Marburg outbreak, the institute and health authorities said....