EIIR to CIIIR: Royals Reveal Charles's New Cypher

Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR CARL RECINE POOL/AFP
Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR CARL RECINE POOL/AFP
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EIIR to CIIIR: Royals Reveal Charles's New Cypher

Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR CARL RECINE POOL/AFP
Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR CARL RECINE POOL/AFP

Buckingham Palace on Monday revealed King Charles III's new royal cypher -- the monogram of his initials that will feature on government buildings, state documents and new post boxes.

His late mother Queen Elizabeth II's cypher was EIIR, standing for Elizabeth II Regina (queen in Latin), AFP said.

Charles's will be CIIIR for Charles III Rex (king in Latin), with the C intertwined with the R, the III within the R, and the crown above both letters.

A Scottish version of the cypher features the Scottish Crown.

The cypher was designed by The College of Arms, which was founded in 1484 and whose job is to create and maintain official registers of coats of arms and pedigrees.

The Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace will frank the first items of mail with "CIIIR" on Tuesday, after the end of royal mourning for the queen, who died on September 8, aged 96.

The palace mailroom handles some 200,000 items every year, from invitations to events, responses to public letters and cards, and state business.

The new cypher will be used throughout the Royal Household and by government departments.

The accession of Charles, 73, to the throne has already seen an immediate change in the national anthem, from "God Save the Queen" to "God Save the King".

Senior lawyers have become "king's counsel" (KC) instead of "queen's counsel" (QC) for the first time since the death of the late queen's father, king George VI, in 1952.

Other changes -- from the king's head on bank notes and coins to the wording inside passports -- will gradually be brought in both in Britain and the 14 other countries where he is also head of state.



Rwanda and WHO Declare End of Marburg Outbreak after No New Cases Reported

In this Oct. 8, 2014 photo, a medical worker from the Infection Prevention and Control unit wearing full protective equipment carries a meal to an isolation tent housing a man being quarantined after coming into contact in Uganda with a carrier of the Marburg Virus, at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP)
In this Oct. 8, 2014 photo, a medical worker from the Infection Prevention and Control unit wearing full protective equipment carries a meal to an isolation tent housing a man being quarantined after coming into contact in Uganda with a carrier of the Marburg Virus, at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP)
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Rwanda and WHO Declare End of Marburg Outbreak after No New Cases Reported

In this Oct. 8, 2014 photo, a medical worker from the Infection Prevention and Control unit wearing full protective equipment carries a meal to an isolation tent housing a man being quarantined after coming into contact in Uganda with a carrier of the Marburg Virus, at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP)
In this Oct. 8, 2014 photo, a medical worker from the Infection Prevention and Control unit wearing full protective equipment carries a meal to an isolation tent housing a man being quarantined after coming into contact in Uganda with a carrier of the Marburg Virus, at the Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. (AP)

The World Health Organization and the Rwandan government on Friday declared the outbreak in Rwanda of the Ebola-like Marburg fever over after no new cases were registered in recent weeks.

The country first declared the outbreak on Sept. 27 and reported a total of 15 deaths and 66 cases, with the majority of those affected healthcare workers who handled the first patients.

Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88% of people who fall ill with the disease. Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting and, in some cases, death through extreme blood loss.

There is no authorized vaccine or treatment for Marburg, though Rwanda received hundreds of doses of a vaccine under trial in October.

An outbreak is considered over after 42 days — two 21-day incubation cycles of the virus — elapsed without registering new cases and all existing cases test negative.

Rwanda discharged the last Marburg patient on Nov. 8 and had reported no new confirmed cases since Oct. 30.

However, WHO officials and Rwanda's Health Minister Dr. Sabin Nzanzimana on Friday said risks remain and that people should stay vigilant.

“We believe it’s not completely over because we still face risks, especially from bats. We are continuing to build new strategies, form new health teams, and deploy advanced technologies to track their movements, understand their behavior, and monitor who is interacting with them,” the minister announced during a press conference in the capital, Kigali.

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus is believed to originate in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bed sheets.

“I thank the government of Rwanda, its leadership and Rwandans in general for the strong response to achieve this success but the battle continues,” said the WHO representative in Rwanda, Dr. Brain Chirombo.

Marburg outbreaks and individual cases have in the past been recorded in Tanzania, Equatorial Guinea, Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana.

The virus was first identified in 1967 after it caused simultaneous outbreaks of disease in laboratories in the German city of Marburg and in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia. Seven people died after being exposed to the virus while conducting research on monkeys.