Rwanda will deploy Marburg vaccine under trial as death toll rises to 12

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Rwanda will deploy Marburg vaccine under trial as death toll rises to 12

2024-10-06 19:08 Last Updated At：19:10

KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) — Rwandan health authorities will begin a vaccine study against the Marburg hemorrhagic fever, officials said Sunday, as the East African country tries to stop the spread of an outbreak that has killed 12 people.

Rwanda, which received 700 doses of a vaccine under trial from the U.S.-based Sabin Vaccine Institute on Saturday, will target health workers and emergency responders as well as individuals who have been in contact with confirmed cases, according to the Health Ministry.

Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana told reporters Sunday that the Rwanda Biomedical Centre had reviewed the vaccine shipment.

There is no authorized vaccine or treatment for Marburg.

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus is believed to originate in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bed sheets. Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88% of people who fall ill with the disease.

In a statement, Sabin Vaccine Institute said it had “entered into a clinical trial agreement with the Rwanda Biomedical Centre, the trial sponsor, to provide investigational doses" for the study.

The Rwandan government said there were 46 confirmed cases, with 29 of them in isolation. Health authorities have identified at least 400 people who came into contact with confirmed cases of the virus.

Rwanda declared an outbreak of Marburg on Sept. 27 and reported six deaths a day later. Authorities said at the time that the first cases had been found among patients in health facilities. There is still no confirmation of the source of the outbreak.

Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting and, in some cases, death through extreme blood loss.

In Rwanda, most of the sick are health workers in six out of the country's 30 districts. Some patients live in districts bordering Congo, Burundi, Uganda and Tanzania, according to the World Health Organization.

Rwandans have been urged to avoid physical contact to help curb the spread. Strict measures include the suspension of school and hospital visits as well as a restriction on the number of those who can attend funerals for Marburg victims. Home vigils aren’t allowed in the event a death is linked to Marburg.

The U.S. Embassy in Kigali has urged its staff to work remotely and avoid visiting offices.

Marburg outbreaks and individual cases have in the past been recorded in Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana, according to WHO.

The virus was first identified in 1967, after it caused simultaneous outbreaks of disease in laboratories in Marburg, Germany and Belgrade, Serbia. Seven people died after being exposed to the virus while conducting research on monkeys.

A strike on a mosque kills 19 as Israel bombards northern Gaza and southern Beirut

2024-10-06 19:08 Last Updated At：19:10

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — An Israeli strike on a mosque in the Gaza Strip early Sunday killed at least 19 people, Palestinian officials said, as Israel intensified its bombardment of northern Gaza and southern Beirut in a widening war with Iran-allied militant groups across the region.

Displaced people were sheltering at the mosque that was struck near the main hospital in the central town of Deir al-Balah. A further four people were killed in a strike on a school sheltering displaced people near the town.

The Israeli military said both strikes targeted militants, without providing evidence.

An Associated Press journalist counted the bodies at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital morgue. Hospital records showed that the dead from the strike on the mosque were all men.

Israel is still battling Hamas in Gaza a year after the group's attack on Israel, and has opened a new front in Lebanon against Hezbollah, which has been trading fire with Israel along the border since the war in Gaza began. Israel has also vowed to strike Iran itself after Tehran launched a ballistic missile attack on Israel last week.

The widening conflict risks drawing in the United States, which has provided crucial military and diplomatic support to Israel, as well as U.S.-allied Arab countries that host American forces. Iran-allied militant groups in Syria, Iraq and Yemen have already joined in with long-distance strikes on Israel.

The Israeli military, meanwhile, announced a new air and ground offensive in Jabaliya, in northern Gaza, home to a densely populated refugee camp dating back to the 1948 war surrounding Israel's creation. It circulated photos and video footage showing a column of tanks heading toward the area.

Israeli forces encircled Jabaliya as warplanes struck militant sites inside, the military said. Over the course of the war, Israel has carried out several large operations there, only to see militants regroup.

Israel reiterated its call, from the opening weeks of the war, for the complete evacuation of northern Gaza. Up to 300,000 people are estimated to have remained in the heavily destroyed north after earlier Israeli warnings that sent around a million fleeing to the south.

“We are in a new phase of the war,” the military said in leaflets dropped over the area. “These areas are considered dangerous combat zones.”

Palestinian residents reported heavy Israeli strikes across northern Gaza. The Civil Defense — first responders who operate under the Hamas-run government — said several homes and buildings had been hit and they were not able to reach them because of the bombardment.

Residents posted about the airstrikes and mourned their relatives on social media. Imad Alarabid said in a Facebook post that an airstrike on his home in Jabaliya killed a dozen family members, including his parents. Saeed Abu Elaish, a Health Ministry medic, said he was wounded and bleeding.

“Pray for us,” he wrote on Facebook.

Hassan Hamd, a freelance TV journalist whose footage had aired on Al Jazeera and othr networks, was killed in artillery shelling on his home in Jabaliya. Anas al-Sharif, an Al Jazeera reporter in northern Gaza, confirmed his death.

The military says it has expanded the so-called humanitarian zone in southern Gaza, urging people to head there. Hundreds of thousands of people have already sought refuge in sprawling tent camps there with little in the way of food, water or toilets. Israel has carried out strikes in the humanitarian zone against what it says are militants hiding among civilians.

Nearly 42,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. It does not say how many were fighters, but says a little more than half were women and children.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack and took another 250 hostage. They are still holding around 100 captives, a third of whom are believed to be dead.

In Beirut, airstrikes lit up the skyline and loud explosions echoed across the southern suburbs, known as the Dahiyeh, throughout the night, as Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah militant sites.

Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said the area was hit by more than 30 strikes overnight, the heaviest bombardment since Sept. 23 when Israel escalated its air campaign.

The targets included a gas station on the main highway leading to the Beirut airport and a warehouse for medical supplies, the agency said. Some of the overnight strikes set off a long series of explosions, suggesting that ammunition stores may have been hit.

Israel’s military confirmed it was striking targets near Beirut and said about 30 projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, with some intercepted.

Hezbollah said it successfully targeted a group of Israeli soldiers in northern Israel “with a large rocket salvo, hitting them accurately.” It was not possible to confirm the claim.

At least 1,400 Lebanese, including civilians, medics and Hezbollah fighters, have been killed and 1.2 million driven from their homes in less than two weeks. Israel says it aims to drive the militant group away from its border so that tens of thousands of Israeli citizens can return to their homes.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah, the strongest armed force in Lebanon, began firing rockets into Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, calling it a show of support for the Palestinians. Hezbollah and Israel’s military have traded fire almost daily.

Last week, Israel launched what it said was a limited ground operation into southern Lebanon after a series of attacks killed longtime Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and most of his top commanders. The fighting is the worst since Israel and Hezbollah fought a monthlong war in 2006. Nine Israeli soldiers have been killed in ground clashes that Israel says have killed 440 Hezbollah fighters.

It is not possible to verify battlefield reports from either side.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday reiterated his call for a partial arms embargo on Israel — a demand that prompted an angry response from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a written statement, Macron’s office said he favors a halt to arms exports for use in Gaza because a cease-fire is needed “to stop the mounting violence, free the hostages, protect civilians and clear the way to the political solutions needed for the security of Israel and the whole Middle East.”

Macron's earlier similar remarks led Netanyahu to release a video statement in which he called out the French president by name and referred to such calls as a “disgrace.”

Macron's office insisted that “France is Israel’s unfailing friend” and called Netanyahu's remarks “excessive."

Magdy reported from Cairo. Associated Press writer Sylvie Corbet in Paris contributed.

Follow AP’s war coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/israel-hamas-war