What is Marburg virus and how does it spread?

Certain strains of the virus can kill up to 88 per cent of infected people

Equatorial Guinea has confirmed its first nine deaths from the Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola, with health authorities currently examining a further 16 suspected cases.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared the country’s first-ever epidemic of the disease after samples were verified by a laboratory in Senegal.

The agency said it was sending medical experts to help officials in the country stop the outbreak and was also sending protective equipment for hundreds of workers.

It is the third separate West African nation to report a Marburg case in three years, with the virus detected in Guinea in 2021 before a larger outbreak hit Ghana last year.

A 2004 outbreak in Angola saw the virus kill off 90 per cent of the 252 people infected.

What is Marburg virus?

It is a hemorrhagic fever virus from the same family as the virus that causes Ebola.

The virus can be transmitted by exposure to mines or caves inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies, which carry the pathogen.

Once a person is infected, Marburg can spread through human-to-human transmission via direct contact with blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of these individuals and with surfaces and materials contaminated with these fluids. It is not an airborne disease.

On average, the virus kills half those infected, says the WHO, but the most harmful strains have killed up to 88 per cent, making it one of the deadliest pathogens on the planet.

Marburg virus was first described in 1967, after being discovered that year during a set of outbreaks in the German cities of Marburg and Frankfurt and the Serbian capital Belgrade.

Since then, outbreaks have been reported in Kenya, South, Africa, Uganda and Zimbabwe. Only one person in Europe has died of the disease in the past 40 years.

Symptoms and illness

The incubation period for Marburg virus disease – how long it takes before symptoms emerge – varies from two to 21 days.

However, illness begins “abruptly”, according to the WHO, with a high fever, severe headache and malaise. Muscle aches and cramping pains are also common features.

In Ghana last year, two unrelated individuals who died of the virus experienced symptoms including diarrhoea, fever, nausea and vomiting. One case was a 26-year-old man who checked into a hospital on 26 June and died a day later. The second was a 51-year-old man who went to a hospital on 28 June and died the same day, the WHO said.

In fatal cases, death usually occurs between eight and nine days after the onset of the disease.

Treating and preventing Marburg virus disease

There are no antiviral treatments or vaccines for the infection. However, a range of drugs and immune therapies are being developed.

A patient’s chances of survival can also be improved by keeping them hydrated with oral or intravenous fluids and maintaining oxygen levels.

Gavi, an international organisation promoting vaccine access, says that people in Africa should avoid eating or handling bushmeat. Doctors and families should also be careful when dealing with the body of an infected individual, as they can remain contagious after death.