The most recent outbreak of Marburg Viral Disease (MVD) in Uganda has now claimed the lives of three people with as many as six ill (depending on the news resource). Attached to the outbreak is a curious superstition, explained in a recent update from the World Health Organization:
In the ongoing Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) outbreak in Kween district eastern Uganda, community engagement responders are faced with several rumours, misinformation and strong negative beliefs that seem to underpin outbreak.Most prominent is witchcraft which many believe is responsible for the deaths that have lately occurred in their community. For instance, family members of the probable and confirmed cases are convinced that their people were bewitched by their step mother who comes from a neighbouring tribe and with whom they have had a longstanding land feud. So firm is their belief that they planned to attack and kill her and her children had it not been for the timely intervention by members of the district health team.
Couple this strange bit of news with the reports coming out of Uganda, regarding ‘dancing with the dead’ as a means of transmission for pneumonic and bubonic plague, and you get a recipe for a major healthcare crisis in both regions.
