Efforts are underway to contain these outbreaks. Wen: At this time, cases of the Marburg virus disease have been found in just the two countries, Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania. Infected patients are treated with symptomatic and supportive therapies, meaning that they would get fluids, oxygen and blood transfusions as necessary.ĬNN: Who should worry about the Marburg virus? There is no specific antiviral treatment. Wen: No vaccine has been developed against the Marburg virus, though there is an experimental vaccine and other vaccine candidates. Those caring for them should wear protective gowns, gloves and masks to prevent direct physical contact with the patient.ĬNN: Is there a vaccine? How is Marburg virus disease treated? Individuals with suspected or confirmed Marburg virus should be placed in isolation. That includes family members, caregivers and health care workers. Those most at risk of Marburg are people in direct contact with infected individuals. Some cases have also been documented in which semen from a man who has recovered from Marburg has resulted in transmission to his partners. That includes contact with blood or other bodily fluids or objects contaminated with the bodily fluids of an infected person - such as bedding, clothing, needles and other medical equipment. Wen: Similar to Ebola, Marburg is spread via direct person-to-person contact. Most symptoms start within a week, with death occurring between eight and nine days after initial symptoms. The incubation period - the period from infection to the start of symptoms - is as short as two days to as long as three weeks. Severe blood loss can cause shock and death. Externally, patients might bleed from the nose, gums and eyes, and internal bleeding manifests as blood in vomit, urine and stool. This disease, like Ebola, is a hemorrhagic fever, in which infected individuals bleed from multiple orifices. It’s also common to have abdominal pain and cramping and heavy watery diarrhea. Symptoms often start suddenly, with infected patients experiencing high fever, headache, muscle aches and malaise. That means about half the people who contract the disease will die from it.Ī color-enhanced electron micrograph depicts particles of Marburg virus, which, like the Ebola virus, is part of the filovirus family. With previous outbreaks, case fatality rates have ranged from 24% to 88%, with an average fatality rate of around 50%. Wen: Marburg virus disease is extremely deadly and is highly contagious when engaging in direct contact with an infected person. With previous outbreaks, fruit bats have been identified as the hosts of the Marburg virus, from which the virus is then transmitted to people.ĬNN: What are symptoms and what makes this disease so dangerous? The viral infection is a zoonotic disease, meaning that the origin of the disease is transmission from animals to humans. Like Ebola, Marburg causes a severe hemorrhagic fever that impacts multiple organ systems and can include profuse bleeding, and affects both humans and nonhuman primates. Leana Wen: The Marburg virus disease is caused by the Marburg virus, which is in the same family of viruses as the Ebola virus. Finally, who should worry about the Marburg virus?ĭr. I asked about the disease’s symptoms, what makes it so dangerous, how it is spread, whether there is a vaccine, and how the disease is treated. Wen is an emergency physician and professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health Leana Wen to ask about the Marburg virus. In terms of infection, we are one community, which is why I turned to CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Health officials are investigating a total of eight cases, five of whom have died, and they have identified a total of 161 contacts who are being monitored.Īs most people know now from the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, a virus can spread from one country to another and hop from continent to continent through human transmission. Now, authorities in Tanzania, in East Africa, have confirmed that country’s first-ever case of the fatal disease. There have been at least nine laboratory-confirmed cases, seven of which resulted in death, and 20 probable cases of dead individuals in this outbreak, according to the World Health Organization. The West African country of Equatorial Guinea declared an outbreak of the Marburg virus disease in mid-February.
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