What Is Marburg Virus (and How Much Should I Worry About It)?
The World Health Organization recently met to discuss the Marburg virus outbreak in Equatorial Guinea in Africa. The virus is associated with Ebola and has no known cure. For now, the outbreak is small and scientists are rushing to deploy experimental vaccines and drugs. Here’s what you should know about it.
How bad is the Marburg virus?
The Marburg virus is a close relative of the Ebola virus. Both are RNA-based filoviruses (named for their serpentine shape) and both cause hemorrhagic fevers. They can affect many organ systems in the body and often damage the walls of blood vessels in a way that results in internal bleeding or hemorrhage, hence the name.
These viruses can cause organ failure and death, but this does not mean that every occurrence is fatal. One can have a mild case or recover from a moderate case with good medical care. Despite this, the mortality rate is high, ranging from 24% to 88% .
Marburg is distributed through body fluids, including but not limited to blood. Health care workers and family members of infected people are most at risk of contracting the disease. Close contact with an infected person or their body, or with surfaces they have touched (such as bedding) can transmit the disease. Luckily, it doesn’t seem to fly through the air.
Where is the Marburg outbreak?
The current Marburg virus outbreak is taking place in Equatorial Guinea, which is located in the inner corner of the continent south of Cameroon. It probably started in January of this year, but it was only recently confirmed that the outbreak was caused by Marburg. At the moment, nine people have died, 16 more are in quarantine, according to STAT.
Marburg is likely a bat virus that occasionally crosses over into humans. Its name comes from a town in Germany where several of the lab’s employees fell ill in 1967. The virus has been found in some monkeys in the lab. Since then, there have been several known outbreaks in African countries, including recent outbreaks in Uganda, Guinea and Ghana. Most outbreaks were stopped quickly by isolating sick people, quarantining people who may have been infected, and carefully handling the bodies of those who died.
What happens when someone gets Marburg virus?
According to the World Health Organization, the early symptoms of Marburg disease are the sudden onset of fever and often a severe headache. Muscle pain, diarrhea and vomiting may follow. These symptoms can be mistaken for other illnesses, including Ebola, as well as others such as typhoid and malaria.
Deaths often have blood in the feces and vomit, and there may also be bleeding from other sites such as the nose, gums, and vagina. Death occurs about eight to nine days after the onset of symptoms.
Treatment of the disease is mostly supportive, which means that healthcare professionals try to keep the person hydrated and treat symptoms to prevent them from getting worse. There is no medicine that reliably fights the virus, and there is no vaccine to prevent it.
But there are vaccines and treatments that are supposed to work against Marburg, including those that have worked against Ebola in the past. The World Health Organization is urging scientists to work as quickly as possible to introduce experimental treatments to the region where the outbreak occurred. These treatments can save lives, but the outbreak also provides a rare opportunity to test these treatments to see if they will work in the future.