PARASRAM REVEALS DEADLY NEW DISEASE

CHIEF Medical Officer Dr. Roshan Parasram is warning of “a highly-virulent, epidemic-prone disease associated with high case fatality rates.” 

The illness is called Marburg Virus Disease (MVD), and death could take place “between eight and nine days.” 

Symptoms could appear abruptly, Parasram said, and during the incubation period there could include high fever, severe headache, severe malaise, muscle aches and pains, severe watery diarrhoea, abdominal pains and cramps, nausea and vomiting. 

He said that “fatal cases usually have some form of bleeding, often from multiple areas.” 

He stated that fresh blood could appear in vomit or faeces and also from nose, gums and vagina. 

Parasram said that “spontaneous bleeding … can be particularly troublesome.” 

He added: “During the severe phase of illness, patents have sustained high fevers.  

“Involvement of the central nervous system can result in confusion, irritability, and aggression.” 

Death “occurs most often between eight and nine days after symptom onset, usually preceded by severe blood loss and shock,” the CMO said. 

He said that at present “there is no local or regional laboratory capacity for MVD diagnosis.” 

But he advised that “samples could be collected and packaged in accordance with appropriate bio-safety precautions and forwarded to Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA).” 

In a letter to medical leaders of the public health sector, Parasram advised that “case definitions” should include at least three of these symptoms – headaches, lethargy, anorexia, loss of appetite, aching muscles or joints, stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhoea or hiccups. 

Symptoms also include “any person with inexplicable bleeding.” 

The focus should be on “any person with relevant travel or contact history, manifesting sudden onset of high fever.”