Marburg Haemorrhagic Fever

Marburg haemorrhagic fever is a rare, severe disease caused by a virus from the Filovirus family which also includes the virus that causes Ebola haemorrhagic fever.

Image credit: CDC PHIL #275

Marburg virus was first recognised in 1967, when it caused simultaneous outbreaks of haemorrhagic fever in laboratories in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Yugoslavia. A total of 37 people became ill, including 25 laboratory workers, medical personnel, and family members who had cared for them. The first cases were in laboratory staff exposed to the virus while working with imported African green monkeys or their tissues.

No imported case of Marburg haemorrhagic fever has ever occurred in the UK.

Known outbreaks/cases in 2007-8:

• USA: imported case ex-Uganda in January 2008 (reported January 2009)
• Holland: an imported case ex-Uganda, July 2008
• A small outbreak in a mine in eastern Uganda in August 2007