Health authorities in Guinea have confirmed one death from Marburg virus. It marks the first time that the deadly disease has been identified in West Africa.
There have been 12 major Marburg outbreaks since 1967, mostly in southern and eastern Africa.
Previous outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
The most recent outbreak of Marburg virus occurred in Uganda in 2017 during which three cases were confirmed. All three patients died.
In 2005, the largest documented Marburg outbreak occurred in Angola, with 329 people dying out of a total of 374 cases.
Guinea’s health ministry said on 25 July that the patient arrived at a local clinic in the Koundou area of Gueckedou for treatment. A medical investigation team was dispatched to investigate his worsening symptoms, including fever, headache, fatigue, abdominal pain and gingival hemorrhage.
He died on 2 August. A field laboratory in Gueckedou collected samples from the deceased patient and Guinea’s national haemorrhagic fever laboratory confirmed he had Marburg virus.
The Pasteur Institute in Senegal also confirmed the result.
“The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks,” Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, said in the statement.
Efforts are now under way to find people who may have been in contact with the man who died.
What is Marburg Virus
Marburg virus disease is a highly virulent disease that causes haemorrhagic fever. It has a fatality ratio of up to 88%.
It is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) rates it as a Risk Group 4 Pathogen (requiring biosafety level 4-equivalent containment).
In the United States, the NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases ranks it as a Category A Priority Pathogen. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists it as a Category A Bioterrorism Agent.
Marburg Virus Transmission
Marburg virus disease is transmitted to people from fruit bats. Once infected, humans can spread the virus to other people through bodily fluids and via contaminated surfaces and through unprotected sex.
Virus Symptoms
Symptoms of the virus include headache, fever, muscle pains, bleeding and vomiting blood, the WHO says.
The disease remains very rare and hard to recognize. The symptoms resemble malaria, typhoid and other haemorrhagic fevers.
During the severe phase of illness, patients have sustained high fevers.
Involvement of the central nervous system can result in confusion, irritability and aggression.
In fatal cases, death usually occurs between 8 and 9 days after onset, usually preceded by severe blood loss and shock.
Virus Origins
What is the Marburg virus origin? The virus was first described in 1967. It was discovered that year during a set of outbreaks of Marburg virus disease in the German cities of Marburg and Frankfurt and the Yugoslav capital Belgrade.
Laboratory workers were exposed to tissues of infected grivet monkeys (the African green monkey, Chlorocebus aethiops) at the Behringwerke, a major industrial plant in Marburg which was then part of Hoechst, and later part of CSL Behring.
During the outbreaks, thirty-one people became infected and seven of them died.
Marburg Virus Treatment
The disease is severe, untreatable and ultimately kills approximately half of the people it infects.
Doctors say the best way to deal with it, is to treat the symptoms and give patients lots of water.