Suspected Marburg virus cases in Hamburg test negative amid fears of outbreak
Rwanda is currently experiencing an outbreak of Marburg virus with 36 cases confirmed as of Wednesday
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Two passengers with suspected cases of Marburg virus in Germany have tested negative for the highly contagious disease.
The travellers – returning from Rwanda to Hamburg via Frankfurt – were taken for examination at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) on Wednesday (2 October).
Platforms at Hamburg Central Station were closed yesterday after one of the passengers contacted doctors while on the ICE train to Hamburg, concerned they had contracted a tropical disease in Rwanda.
The health authority in Hamburg isolated both people at the main train station and transferred them to an area for highly contagious infectious diseases at the UKE for further examination.
Rwanda is currently experiencing an outbreak of Marburg virus with 36 cases, 25 people in isolation and 11 deaths confirmed as of Wednesday in the landlocked African country.
Hamburg’s Social Affairs Authority confirmed that the pair had worked in a hospital in Rwanda as part of their medical studies and tested negative for Marburg virus in a PCR test.
According to the authority, at no time did either passenger have “complaints or symptoms corresponding to the disease” after one of the medical students, 26, had minimal contact with a patient infected with Marburg on 25 September.
Symptoms of the Marburg virus include fever, muscle pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and, in some cases, death through extreme blood loss.
The virus originates in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with bodily fluids or contaminated surfaces.
The Hamburg authority said in a statement: “A risk to third parties can be ruled out due to the negative test and the lack of symptoms during the trip. The negative test shows that no viruses were present. This means that there was never a risk of infection with the Marburg virus for either the air or rail passengers.”
They added: “Hamburg is well prepared for an epidemic. The epidemic control specialist and response group of the Public Health Service of the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, which was set up for such cases and is made up of interdisciplinary experts, coordinated the measures.”
The student who was in contact with an infected person will now be monitored for up to 21 days – until the end of the incubation period.
The UK Foreign Office updated its travel advice for Rwanda on 1 October to read: “The Rwandan Ministry of Health has issued a public update that Marburg virus disease has been confirmed in health facilities in the country.
“We understand it is present in hospitals in Kigali. Investigations are being carried out to determine the origin of the infection.”
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