The laboratory staff got infected as a result of working with the materials (blood, tissues, and cells) of the monkeys. It came from monkeys imported from Uganda for laboratory studies in Marburg. There were simultaneous outbreaks in both cities. It was first reported in 1967 in a town called Marburg in Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia). It has varied between 24 percent and 88 percent in different outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management. The virus, which belongs to the same family as the Ebola virus, causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever in humans with an average case fatality rate of around 50 percent.
Marburg virus causes the Marburg virus disease (MVD), formerly known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever.
What is the Marburg virus, and where did it come from? The Conversation Africa’s Wale Fatade and Usifo Omozokpea asked virologist Oyewale Tomori about its origin and how people can protect themselves against the disease. In July 2022, Ghana confirmed its first two cases of the deadly Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola.
