Insights from Successful Marburg Virus Outbreak Response
On May 20, 2025, ICAP will present the Grand Rounds — Insights from Successful Marburg Virus Outbreak Response.
Marburg virus disease (MVD) is a severe and often fatal hemorrhagic fever that is clinically similar to the Ebola virus disease. In fall 2024, Rwanda experienced the third-largest recorded MVD outbreak, with 66 reported cases and 15 deaths, the majority of which were among healthcare workers. In response, Rwanda’s Ministry of Health launched a comprehensive national program that included widespread public health awareness campaigns, promotion of hygiene practices, strict monitoring of transmissions, isolation of potential cases, effective treatment protocols for confirmed cases, and the distribution of investigational vaccines and therapeutics. The Ministry of Health declared the outbreak over by December 2024.
Although there are currently no licensed vaccines or treatments for MVD, several candidate vaccines are in development, and some have entered clinical trials.
Experts from the Rwanda Biomedical Centre and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (IAVI) will share experiences and lessons learned from managing the MVD outbreak in Rwanda and the development of a candidate vaccine.
Presenters
Mark Feinberg, MD, PhD, CEO of IAVI
Mark Feinberg is president and CEO of IAVI, where he leads a global team working to advance the development of vaccines and other biomedical innovations to protect against infection with HIV, tuberculosis, emerging viruses and other public health threats that disproportionately impact people living in low-income countries. Prior to joining IAVI in 2015, Feinberg served as chief public health and science officer with Merck Vaccines. In this role, he helped advance the development and global availability of vaccines against rotavirus, human papillomavirus, and other infectious diseases. He also led a range of research initiatives to address unmet health needs in low-income countries including the coordination of a private-public partnership to expedite the development of an efficacious Ebola Zaire vaccine. Previously, Feinberg spent more than 20 years exploring HIV/AIDS pathogenesis, treatment, and prevention research and the biology of emerging diseases in both academia and government.
Edson Rwagasore, MD, Head of Public Health Surveillance and Emergency Response, Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC)
Edson Rwagasore is a public health physician and epidemiologist, currently serving as the head of public health surveillance and emergency response at the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC). In this role, he leads Rwanda’s national surveillance systems, outbreak investigations, and emergency health responses to protect public health. He is also the program director for the Rwanda Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), where he builds the capacity of the country’s next generation of epidemiologists. Rwagasore played a key role as the lead for surveillance during Rwanda’s successful response to the 2024 Marburg virus disease outbreak, coordinating case detection, contact tracing, laboratory surveillance, and real-time data analysis to rapidly contain the epidemic.
