Sunday, 20 October 2024

WHO Director-General's opening remarks at media briefing on the outbreak of Marburg virus disease

Kigali, Rwanda, 20 October 2024

Honourable Minister Dr Sabin Nsanzimana,

Members of the press,

Dear colleagues and friends,

It’s an honour to be back in Rwanda, and I thank the Minister for his hospitality, and also for his leadership in the response to the outbreak of Marburg virus disease.

Last night I also had the opportunity to meet with His Excellency President Kagame, and it is clear that he is closely engaged in the response to the outbreak.

Leadership from the highest levels of government is essential in any outbreak response, and that’s what we see here in Rwanda. Thank you Mr President and Mr Minister for your leadership.

We’re pleased to see that there have been no new cases in the past six days, and we hope that remains the case.

Yesterday we visited the treatment centre, where there are still a few patients receiving treatment, although most are now negative for Marburg and we expect them to be discharged shortly.

We were impressed with the level of critical care for patients, which has not been used before in an outbreak of a viral haemorrhagic fever in our Continent (Africa).

Two of the patients we met had experienced all of the symptoms of Marburg, including multiple organ failure, but they were put on life support, they were successfully intubated and extubated, and are now recovering. We believe this is the first time patients with Marburg virus have been extubated in Africa. These patients would have died in previous outbreaks.

This reflects the work Rwanda has done over many years to strengthen its health system, to develop capacities for critical care and life support that can be deployed both in regular hospital care, and in emergencies. I have heard this not only from local doctors but foreign nationals working in the hospitals and treatment centres in Rwanda.

Although there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics for Marburg, we congratulate Rwanda for the speed with which it initiated trials of both vaccines and therapeutics, and we hope that these trials will help to generate the data to support approval of these products for future outbreaks.

This also demonstrates the work Rwanda has done to strengthen its regulatory system, which has been working towards reaching WHO maturity level 3. We hope the agency will reach maturity level 3 by the end of this year.

I thank the many partners who have supported these trials, including the Sabin Vaccine Institute and the University of Oxford – and I’m glad that the CEO of the Sabin Institute, Amy Finan, is able to join us today.

As you know, we have three other candidate vaccines in the pipeline, from Oxford University, Public Health Vaccines and IAVI, and I am really glad that tropical diseases like Marburg virus, which is dangerous, is getting attention, and we have vaccines in the pipeline.

Yesterday we also visited the National Command Post, and we were impressed with the way technology is being used to provide real-time information for action, and enhance operational efficiency. Borrowing the words of President Kagame, I saw smart Rwanda in action.

And we also visited the BioNTech vaccine manufacturing facility. I was here in Kigali for the groundbreaking ceremony two years ago, so I was very pleased to see the significant progress in construction.

One of the key lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic was the need to expand local production of vaccines to avoid the inequitable access to vaccines that we saw, and we’re pleased to see the way Rwanda and BioNTech are investing in local production. You know how Africa was treated when the vaccines arrived, with vaccine inequity and vaccine nationalism, and we hope these strategic investments will fix the inequity problems we faced during COVID.

So, as I said, we’re very pleased that there have been no new cases and deaths in the past six days, and I can see the outbreak is being managed under strong leadership. But we are dealing with one of the world’s most dangerous viruses, and continued vigilance is essential.

Enhanced surveillance, contact tracing and infection prevention and control measures must continue at scale until the outbreak is declared over.

WHO will continue to support the government in the response. Together with our partners we have provided technical experts, personal protective equipment, test kits and other supplies.

I thank especially the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom for the funding they have provided to WHO and other partners.

I salute the dedicated health workers who have put themselves in harm’s way to save their colleagues, and who have continued to work despite the risks. And I honour the memory of those we have lost.

I would like to reiterate that based on a risk assessment, WHO advises against restrictions on travel or trade, because they are unnecessary and can harm Rwanda’s economy. Except harm, it does not bring anything.

Most countries have respected that advice, but some have imposed travel restrictions, and we ask those countries to reverse those restrictions.

Honourable Minister, thank you once again for your leadership, and I assure you of WHO’s complete commitment to supporting you in any way we can.

Murakoze cyane!

Media contacts:

mediainquiries@who.int

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