Marburg virus

Marburg virus

Part of: GS Prelims and GS-II – Health

In news Recently, Guinea confirmed the first recorded case of Marburg virus death in West Africa.

About Marburg virus

• Marburg virus disease (MVD) was formerly known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever.
• Marburg virus disease is a highly virulent disease that causes hemorrhagic fever, with a fatality ratio of up to 88%. 
• It is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease. 
• Two large outbreaks that occurred simultaneously in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, led to the initial recognition of the disease. 
• The outbreak was associated with laboratory work using African green monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) imported from Uganda.

• Symptoms: Headache, vomiting blood, muscle pains and bleeding through various orifices. Many patients develop severe hemorrhagic signs within seven days. Case fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management.

• Transmission

• • Rousettus aegyptiacus, fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family, are considered to be natural hosts of Marburg virus. 
  • The Marburg virus is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through human-to-human transmission.
  • Once an individual is infected with the virus, Marburg can spread through human-to-human transmission via direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials contaminated with these fluids. 

• Treatment and vaccines: Currently there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved for MVD. However, supportive care rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids – and treatment of specific symptoms, improves survival.

• The worst epidemic was in Angola in 2005, with 252 infections and a 90% death rate. This epidemic apparently spread through the reuse of contaminated transfusion equipment in a paediatric ward

News Source: HT