Rwanda to start Marburg vaccinations

The death toll since the outbreak was announced in Rwanda on September 28 has risen to 12, most of them health workers.

With a fatality rate of up to 88 percent, the highly infectious hemorrhagic fever is often accompanied by bleeding and organ failure.

"The vaccines have been tested by health officials here in Rwanda and the standards bureau," Health Minister Nsanzimana Sabin told reporters.

"Today we will begin to immunise those who are most at risk of contracting this disease, including doctors and others who have come in contact with Marburg patients."

He added there were plans to order more doses.

The experimental vaccine, currently in phase 2 trials, was provided by the US-based Sabin Vaccine Institute.

"The initial shipment of approximately 700 vaccine doses will be used in a trial targeting frontline workers, including healthcare professionals who have been hardest hit by the deadly virus," the institute said in a statement on Saturday.

It said trials had already been underway in neighbouring Uganda and Kenya, with no safety concerns reported to date.

Some 41 people have been confirmed to have contracted the disease, the health ministry said.

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

There are currently no officially approved vaccines and no antiviral treatments, but potential treatments, including blood products, immune and drug therapies are being evaluated.