Marburg virus was first identified in 1967 during outbreaks in Germany and Yugoslavia from African green monkeys and fruit bats imported from Uganda. It is transmitted through direct contact with infected humans or animals. Symptoms include fever, headache, stomach issues, rash and red eyes. The Marburg and Ebola viruses are similar in that they cause hemorrhagic fever and are native to Africa. There is no approved vaccine or treatment.

1. By Alexandr and Robert Conlin

2. How long ago and where did it come
from?
• Marburg virus disease was first identified in 1967 during epidemics
in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany and Belgrade in the former
Yugoslavia from importation of infected African green monkeys and
fruit bats from Uganda.

3. • Marburg virus is a member of the Filoviridae family.
• In 2009, expanded clinical trials of an Ebola and Marburg vaccine began
in Kampala, Uganda. As of October 2014, no vaccine has been approved
for use in the US.
• Tourist visits in mines or caves inhabited by fruit bat colonies, people
should wear gloves and other appropriate protective clothing (including
masks). (To prevent this).
• Hemorrhagic: (N) any of a diverse group of virus diseases (as Lassa fever,
Ebola, and Marburg) that are usually transmitted by arthropods or rodents
and are characterized by a sudden onset, fever, aching, bleeding in the
internal organs, petechiae, and shock.

4. How to get this virus
• The Marburg virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood,
secretions, organs, body fluids and tissues of infected persons.
Transmission of the Marburg virus also occurred by handling ill or
dead infected wild animals (African green monkeys, fruit bats).

5. Symptoms
• Symptoms start within 2 to 21 days.
• Fever
• headache
• abdominal pain
• vomiting
• diarrhea
• death
• Red eyes
• Raised rash
• Chest pain and cough
• Stomach pain
• Severe weight loss
• Bleeding, usually from the eyes, and bruising (people near death may bleed from other orifices,
such as ears, nose and rectum)
• Internal bleeding

6. Similarities
• Ebola virus and Marburg virus are related viruses that cause
hemorrhagic fevers
• Illnesses marked by severe bleeding (hemorrhage), organ failure
and, in many cases, death
• Both viruses are native to Africa, where sporadic outbreaks have
occurred for decades.
• No drug has been approved to treat either virus.
• There are little differences but these two viruses are almost the same.

7. Year Country Virus
subtype
People Deaths Case fatality rate
2008 Netherland Marburg 1 1 100%
2008 USA Marburg 1 0 0%
2007 Uganda Marburg 4 2 50%
2005 Angola Marburg 374 329 88%
1998 to 2000 Democratic
Republic of the
Congo
Marburg 154 128 83%
1987 Kenya Marburg 1 1 100%
1980 Kenya Marburg 2 1 50%
1975 South Africa Marburg 3 1 33%
1967 Yugoslavia Marburg 2 0 0%
1967 Germany Marburg 29 7 24%

8. • http://www.who.int/csr/disease/marburg/en/
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_virus
• http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs_marburg/en/
• http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/ebola-
virus/basics/symptoms/con-20031241