German emergency personnel in full protective gear closed two railway lines at Hamburg Central Station on Wednesday after two passengers were suspected of being infected with the deadly Marburg virus.
A 26-year-old medical student and his girlfriend developed flu-like symptoms while riding a train from Frankfurt. According to local reports. The train was evacuated after health authorities suspected they were infected with the Marburg virus, a rare disease with a mortality rate of up to 88%.
Suspicions arose because the student had recently arrived by plane from Rwanda, where he had been in contact with a patient who was later diagnosed with the virus. Local media reported. Later, the passengers tested negative for the deadly and contagious virus.
But the emergency response raises the question: What if it was Marburg?
Rwanda is currently battling an outbreak that began on September 27. According to the Ministry of Health, the death toll has risen to 11, with at least 36 confirmed cases.
“Marburg virus is a very serious infection. It is found in Africa and is very similar to the Ebola virus,” explained Dr. Isaac Bogoch, an infectious disease specialist at Toronto General Hospital.
“We know that there have been periodic outbreaks of Marburg virus over the past few decades. Whenever this disease spreads, it is treated very seriously because it can be fatal in a short period of time.
While the situation in Hamburg was ultimately a false alarm, Bogoch said local and international health agencies remain vigilant as the outbreak in Rwanda progresses.
Here’s what you need to know about the virus.
Marburg is a virus from the same family as the Ebola virus.
It causes hemorrhagic fever and the mortality rate reaches 50 percent on average. According to the World Health Organization (WHO)Although rates have risen to 88 percent in previous outbreaks.
Symptoms usually include a sudden high temperature and severe headache, as well as vomiting and diarrhea, followed by uncontrollable bleeding.
Like Ebola, Marburg virus is thought to originate in fruit bats and spread between people through close contact with infected bodily fluids or with surfaces, such as needles or contaminated bedsheets.
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The virus was first identified in the German city of Marburg and Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, after laboratory work on African green monkeys from Uganda led to humans being infected, according to the World Health Organization. Since then, outbreaks and sporadic cases have appeared in Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, the WHO said.
How does Marburg virus spread?
The virus spreads to humans through prolonged exposure to mines or caves in which fruit bats live, according to the organization. US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
It can also spread between humans, through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, or with surfaces or materials contaminated with those fluids, such as blood. It’s not airborne.
“It’s a contagious infection. The longer it takes to take infection prevention and control measures, the more people can get infected, the bigger the outbreak will be,” Bogoch said.
“Unfortunately, the more people (will) develop this disease as well.“
Are there vaccines or treatments?
There are no approved vaccines or treatments for Marburg disease.
The World Health Organization said early supportive care with rehydration and symptomatic treatment improves the chances of survival.
Although there is no approved vaccine, Rwandan health officials announced on Thursday that they will begin clinical trials of experimental vaccines and treatments in the coming weeks.
“This is part of our efforts to help people recover quickly through the use of vaccines and medicines specifically developed to combat this outbreak, which are currently in the final stage of research,” the country’s health minister, Sabine Nsanzimana, told Reuters.
“We are collaborating with the pharmaceutical companies that developed these medicines, along with the World Health Organization, to accelerate the process through multilateral cooperation.”
The World Health Organization said it was working with the government and convened a meeting of industrial, academic and government partners to accelerate access to vaccine and treatment doses for trials.
Electron micrograph of Marburg virus.
Photo by BSIP/UIG via Getty Images
Four vaccine candidates have been evaluated for potential use in trials by the World Health Organization, but only one vaccine, made by the non-profit Sabin Vaccine Institute, has data from early-stage human trials showing it is safe and triggered an immune response.
Further testing of vaccines outside outbreak settings is not possible due to the risks involved.
Several treatments could be tried, including Gilead Sciences’ remdesivir, an antiviral used during the pandemic to treat COVID-19 and originally developed to treat Marburg-related Ebola.
“While there is no antiviral drug specifically for Marburg or no licensed vaccine, there are drug and vaccine candidates that may be effective,” Bogoch said.
“Sometimes these things are used in these outbreaks in an ethical way to study and evaluate whether this can help suppress the outbreak and generate data to support future outbreaks.”
Can Marburg virus reach Canada?
Marburg virus outbreaks are largely prevalent in Africa. There have been no cases in Canada, The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) reported..
PHAC added that as long as necessary precautions are taken, the risk of contracting Marburg virus disease is low in a country where the disease is present.
The virus was too Nationally reportable diseases in Canada Since 2000. As a nationally notifiable disease, cases of Marburg virus disease are reported to primary health care through national surveillance systems.
PHAC said it is also working closely with its national and international partners, including the World Health Organization, to track any Marburg virus outbreaks.
Although the virus has not spread to Canada or the United States, Bogoch said it is still important to control it because it is a highly contagious disease.
“We know, for example, from a related virus, the Ebola virus, that there was a large outbreak in West Africa in 2014 that spread to multiple countries. It is very difficult to control those when the scale of the outbreak is so large.”
“One big concern is not only the spread into other parts of Rwanda, but also across the border, especially in areas where contact tracing, isolation and medical care may be a little more difficult.”
He stressed that the best approach is an “all hands on deck” strategy to quickly contain the outbreak and prevent its spread within Rwanda and to neighboring countries.
– With files from Katherine Ward of Global News and Reuters
