While outbreaks of Marburg virus are rare, there have been several in recent years across sub-Saharan Africa. It's one of the deadliest viral diseases and can be fatal. Here's what you need to know.
Rwanda is on alert after new cases of sickness caused by Marburg virus – one of the deadliest pathogens known – were reported in late September. While outbreaks of the viral disease it causes are rare and usually confined to sub-Saharan Africa, four concerning incidences have occurred since 2021. The most recent Rwandan outbreak has seen at least 36 cases of Marburg virus disease (MRV), with more than 400 people currently being monitored for symptoms.
ALSO READ: Rwanda's Marburg disease outbreak with unknown source kills 11: All we know Like many diseases, MRV’s name derives from when the disease was first reported in western countries, tracing back to lab outbreaks in Germany and the former Yugoslavia in 1967. Back then, a delivery of vervet monkeys (Chlorocebus pygerythrus) to labs in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and Belgrade in what is present-day Serbia, was pinpointed as the source of the outbreak. Patients admitted to hospitals displayed a range of symptoms common to many viral diseases, but those who died showed signs of hemorrhagic fever.
Marburg is one of the world’s 10 deadliest viral infections Current statistics indicate an 88% mortality rate among those infected with MRV. While outbreaks and infections are infrequent compared to some other viruses in the .
