Marburg virus outbreak nixes Harwood’s 2025 Rwanda trip
October 15, 2024 | By Lisa Scagliotti 
Harwood students and teacher Steve Rand (second from right) learn about a village water system during the 2024 travel study trip to Rwanda. Courtesy photo
An outbreak of the fatal Marburg virus has led Harwood Union High School to cancel its plans for the annual student trip to Rwanda in early 2025.
The U.S. State Department on Oct. 7 revised its travel guidance for Rwanda to the level advising “Reconsider Travel,” discouraging nonessential travel to the African country. In addition, new public health protocols from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for re-routing travelers returning to the U.S. from Rwanda to just three airports, which would pose an additional logistical concern for the school group.
In an email to families late last week, Harwood Principal Megan McDonough wrote: “After careful review of the travel advisory and the current outlook in Rwanda, we regret to inform you that we have decided to cancel the travel study trip to Rwanda this year due to the safety and health concerns related to the Marburg virus.”
According to the World Health Organization, on Sept. 27 the Rwanda Ministry of Health confirmed the outbreak of Marburg virus disease, the first such outbreak in the East African nation although other cases have been reported in the past year in neighboring countries.
As of Oct. 8, the World Health Organization said a total of 58 cases had been reported in Rwanda with 13 deaths. The cases are from several areas of the country, WHO said, with most of the infections in healthcare workers including those working at health facilities in the capital city of Kigali.
McDonough’s message noted that the virus is particularly lethal and that the current outbreak is one of the largest documented so far.
There currently is no known treatment or vaccine for Marburg virus although efforts are under way to deploy a trial of a vaccine in development as part of the response to the current outbreak, according to the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy at the University of Minnesota.
Named after the city in Germany where a 1967 outbreak occurred, Marburg virus is “a highly virulent disease that can cause haemorrhagic fever and is clinically similar to Ebola diseases,” according to the WHO. People can become infected after exposure to Rousettus bats, a type of fruit bat found in mines and caves that can carry the virus. It then spreads among humans through direct contact, blood and bodily fluids.
Planning had just begun at Harwood for the Rwanda student trip that was to take place over three weeks from Feb. 15 into early March. Since 2004, the Rwanda travel study trip has taken place that time of year to overlap with the February-March school break.
An introductory meeting in mid-September attracted about two dozen students and their parents. Several school faculty who have made the trip previously and who planned to go on the 2025 trip attended as well as several students who traveled to Rwanda earlier this year. They shared their experiences with the group and answered questions.
Following the meeting students interested in making the trip were to begin the preparations which included an application, an interview with faculty leaders and eventually weekly group meetings prior to traveling. The group was expected to lead fundraising efforts to help defray the trip cost estimated at $4,000 per person.
McDonough said program leaders would look to resume travel to Rwanda in the 2025-26 school year. “We understand that this decision is particularly hard for members of the class of 2025,” she noted.