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Common Name: Marburg Virus Disease (MVD)

Scientific Name: Marburg marburgvirus

Family: Filoviridae

Genus: Marburgvirus

Species: Marburg marburgvirus

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The earliest outbreak of MVD was in 1975 in Southern Africa, in a region called Zimbabwe. A man was working in mines then traveled to Zimbabwe. Shortly after, himself and his traveling companion was admitted to a hospital, in addition, the virus was spread to a nurse at the hospital.

The timeline of cases or spread were mostly based on people visiting caves or working in mines. Transmission of the virus was mostly through hospitals and funerals. Most outbreaks have occurred in Central and Eastern Africa. But most recent MVD outbreak is in October 2024, there was 64 confirmed MVD cases in Rwanda.

According to WHO, there has been over 700 cases of The Marburg Virus since 1967.

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The Marburg Virus Disease is characterized by a very high virulence. Virulence is a measure of harm that a virus can cause to its host. With a high fatality rate, the MVD can cause severe hemorrhagic fever and death.

Unfortunately, there has been no evidence that MVD has become more or less virulent over the past few decades. But such factors like, advanced healthcare, outbreak response and prevention can help decrease the spread of MVD.

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If there was a possible outbreak of the MVD, the health care community would perform immediate isolation of any suspected and confirmed patients, then supply treatment.

To help the health care community combat the MVD, there were some medical advances that were used such as using Monoclonal Antibodies. In animal experiments, certain Ebola-specific antibodies (such as ZMapp and REGN-EB3) have demonstrated cross-reactivity with MVD. In addition, the use of Anti-Viral treatments that was similarly used for Ebola and COVID-19.

Luckily with medical advances throughout the decades, there has been numerous new technologies applied to this disease, such as Viral Vector Vaccines (Chimpanzee adenovirus-vectored vaccine), and Human monoclonal antibodies that neutralizes viruses and offers passive immunity.

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Since the first outbreak til the most recent outbreak in Rwanda in 2024. The MVD is handled by Early detection and Rapid response teams. Because MVD is considered a very viral disease, local communities or governments collab with WHO(World Health Organization) and the CDC to help with resources. Then provide information to the public about the most recent outbreaks, symptoms, and preventable measures.

Since technology has evolved so much over time, there has been a few advances made for improving detection and containment such as Digital Diagnostics labs, this helps get faster diagnosis in remote areas. Also experimental therapeutics and vaccines.

Ways that leadership could improve on, in response to MVD is implement fever screenings in high risk areas to reduce the chance of a misdiagnose and invest in a better health care system in those high risk areas.

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Marburg Virus was first identified in 1967 during simultaneous outbreaks in Germany that were linked to infected African Green Monkeys imported from Uganda.

The suspected infectious agent was a virus called filovirus (same family as Ebola virus)

MVD is considered as a Zoonotic disease, this disease is spread primary from bats, which can be spread through animal to human contact and human to human contact. Humans can contract the disease after spending a lot of time in caves or mines, where bats tend to live.