Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Uganda
In 1967 in Marburg, Germany, laboratory workers preparing primary cell cultures from African green monkeys resulted in an outbreak of a previously unrecognised disease which was highly infectious. This came to be known as Marburg haemorrhagic fever and this outbreak eventually resulted in 31 cases and 7 deaths. This disease is caused by a virus belonging to the Filovirus family, but in spite of extensive work, there’s still a lot we don’t know about Filoviruses.
Now the Marburg virus (which is closely related to Ebola virus) is back. Two men working in a gold mine in western Uganda have been infected. One man became symptomatic on 4 July 2007, was admitted to hospital on 7 July and died on 14 July. The disease was confirmed by laboratory diagnosis on 30 July. This man had had prolonged close contact with a 21-year-old co-worker with a similar illness to whom he had been providing care. The 21-year-old had developed symptoms on 27 June and was hospitalized with a haemorrhagic illness. He then recovered and was discharged on 9 July.
There have been less than 400 cases of Marburg fever and the outbreaks have been quite rare, so scientists have not had much chance to study the disease. One theory is that either be bats or primates could be a reservior for the disease from which the virus peridically emerges to infect humans. The virus in this outbreak could have been contracted from a Colobus monkey, which was caught and skinned by the two people who became sick. The worst recent outbreak of Marburg fever occurred in 2005, when the virus swept through a children’s ward in Angola and killed at least 200 people. Mostly, the disease has largely been limited to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda.
But what if this virus decides to jump on a plane and take a vacation near you?
[...] by ajcann on August 24th, 2007 Earlier this month there was an outbreak of Marburg virus in Uganda. At the time, it appeared that the source of this particular infection was a Colobus monkey, which [...]
[...] This outbreak comes hot on the heels of an outbreak of the closely related Marburg virus in Uganda last month. [...]
[...] Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Uganda [...]