Rwanda’s last Marburg virus patient was discharged from the hospital on November 8, starting a 42-day countdown until the outbreak is declared over, the World Health Organization (WHO) African regional office said in a November 9 statement.

The country hasn’t reported any new cases since October 30, keeping the total at 66 infections, 15 of them fatal—the third-largest outbreak of its kind to date. The 42-day period covers two virus incubation periods.

Despite the downturn in cases, Rwanda’s government is doubling down on active case finding to ensure that it has not missed any transmission chains.

Rwanda declared the outbreak on September 27. The index patient is thought to have contracted the virus from bats at a mining cave not far from Kigali. Most of the cases that followed were connected to healthcare workers at two Kigali hospitals. Some of the patients were also family members of one of the first patients.

Marburg virus causes a viral hemorrhagic fever disease with symptoms similar to those of Ebola. Though there are no approved vaccines or treatments, Rwanda has launched a vaccine trial during its outbreak and has tested experimental treatments.

Two deer in two Arkansas counties and an elk in southeastern Montana have tested positive for chronic wasting disease (CWD), officials announced late last week.

According to THV 11, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) reported one case each in Conway and Stone counties, in the southeast part of the state, the first case for Conway. The cases were identified during the state's alternative firearms hunting season, which closed on October 27.

A hunter harvested the Conway County deer in the Ed Gordon Point Remove Wildlife Management area. The AGFC was monitoring Conway County because it is near Pope and Van Buren counties, both of which have had CWD cases.

The Stone County deer was taken from private land next to the Sylamore Wildlife Management Area. The county was already part of the state's CWD Management Zone because of its proximity to CWD-positive Searcy, Van Buren, and Independence counties.

Arkansas first detected CWD in 2016 and has since tested more than 61,000 deer and elk, identifying 1,769 deer and 56 elk with the fatal prion disease.

Second recent case in Montana elk

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) announced that a bull elk shot on private land in Hunting District 704, north of Custer National Forest, tested positive for CWD in October, per the Daily Montanan. 

The agency said CWD is likely only now being found in elk because their larger size dissuades hunters from removing the whole animal from the field for testing.

FWP told the news site that the elk was reported in mid-October as being thin, lethargic, and unafraid of people riding horses and driving vehicles nearby. After it began displaying neurologic signs and could no longer pick up its head, the agency euthanized and sampled it.

The state's fifth case in elk since 2017, the diagnosis was the second in a month, after another infected elk was reported on November 1 in Hunting District 322 in the Ruby Mountains, in the southwest part of the state. It was that area's first detection in elk. The agency said CWD is likely only now being found in elk because their larger size dissuades hunters from removing the whole animal from the field for testing.