When Rwanda announced an outbreak of the highly infectious Marburg disease in September, partners from around the world, including the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), provided emergency funding to help curb it. Marburg kills 88% of the people who catch it, but this funding, in conjunction with efforts from the Rwandan ministry of health, rapidly contained and treated 51 of 66 cases in what was thought to have largely been a public health victory.
On the day of President Donald Trump’s inauguration, another Marburg outbreak was announced in Tanzania, where the virus has thus far killed at least eight people. Meanwhile, Ebola (a virus similar to Marburg, also with a high fatality rate) was recently detected in Uganda; public health officials are struggling to contain mpox in Africa; and H5N1, the virus commonly referred to as bird flu continues to infect an unprecedented number of people and species around the globe.
