Marburg Haemorrhagic Fever

Factsheet

Key Facts

• The Marburg virus causes severe viral haemorrhagic fever in humans.
• Case fatality rates in Marburg haemorrhagic fever outbreaks have ranged from 24% to 88%.
• Rousettus aegypti, 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.
• No specific antiviral treatment or vaccine is available.

Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg haemorrhagic fever (MHF), a disease with a case fatality ratio of up to 88%. Marburg haemorrhagic fever was initially detected in 1967 after simultaneous outbreaks in Marburg, from which the disease takes its name, and Frankfurt in Germany; and in Belgrade, Serbia.

Marburg and Ebola viruses are the two members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus). Though caused by different viruses, the two diseases are clinically similar. Both diseases are rare and have the capacity to cause dramatic outbreaks with high fatality rates.

Marburg haemorrhagic fever (MHF) is a viral haemorrhagic fever and a virus from the same family as the one that causes Ebola haemorrhagic fever. These viruses are among the most virulent pathogens known to infect humans. Both diseases are rare, but have a capacity to cause dramatic outbreaks with high fatality rates.

Illness caused by Marburg virus begins abruptly, with severe headache and severe malaise. Many patients develop severe haemorrhagic manifestations between 5 and 7 days, and fatal cases usually have some form of bleeding, often from multiple sites.

The Marburg virus is transmitted via direct contact with the blood, bodily fluids and tissues of infected persons. Close contact with severely ill patients, during care at home or in hospital, and certain burial practices are common routes of infection. Transmission of the virus can also occur by handling ill or dead infected wild animals (monkeys and fruit bats).

The disease has no vaccine and the predominant treatment is general supportive therapy. Severe cases require intensive supportive care, as patients are frequently dehydrated and in need of intravenous fluids or oral rehydration with solutions containing electrolytes. 

Case fatality rates have varied greatly, from 25% in the initial laboratory-associated outbreak in 1967, to more than 80% in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998 to 2000, to even higher in the outbreak that began in Angola in late 2004.