WHO Convenes ‘Urgent’ Meeting Over Marburg, One of World’s Deadliest Viruses

A hazmat worker is seen in a file photo. LM Otero/AP Photo

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday convened an “urgent meeting” amid an outbreak of the Marburg virus, which causes one of the world’s deadliest diseases, in Africa.

Health officials say Marburg, first seen in the late 1960s, is related to Ebola. However, WHO officials say it’s far more deadly, killing upwards of 88 percent of people who contract it.

The virus has been detected in several African countries over the past several months, including recently in Equatorial Guinea. A small number of Marburg cases were found in Ghana late last year.

“WHO on Tuesday convened an urgent meeting of the Marburg virus vaccine consortium (MARVAC) to discuss the outbreak,” a news release from the United Nations-backed health agency said on Tuesday, adding that Equatorial Guinea has confirmed its first-ever case of the virus. WHO officials say the virus is responsible for nine deaths in the tiny African nation.

The Marburg outbreak was centered around Kie Ntem Province, located in western Equatorial Guinea. The deaths occurred between Jan. 7 and Feb. 7, WHO said, citing reports.

“Surveillance in the field has been intensified,” George Ameh, WHO’s country representative in Equatorial Guinea, was quoted as saying by the Daily Mail during Tuesday’s meeting. “Contact tracing, as you know, is a cornerstone of the response. We have ... redeployed the COVID-19 teams that were there for contact tracing and quickly retrofitted them to really help us out.”

In its release, WHO said it sent “advance teams” to impacted districts in the West African country to provide medical care and perform contract tracing. “Health authorities sent samples to the Institut Pasteur reference laboratory in Senegal, with support from WHO, to determine the cause,” Tuesday’s release added. “Eight samples were tested, one of which turned out positive.”

Cases of the virus, however, are considered rare. Annual global figures released by WHO indicate that cases tend to be in the single digits worldwide.

And although it remains “a very rare disease in people,” says the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “when it occurs, it has the potential to spread,” and can be highly deadly. “Health care staff and family members who care for the patient” infected with the hemorrhagic fever are most at risk, the CDC says (pdf) in a fact sheet.

Doctor Mark Katz, a member of the World Health Organisation (WHO), takes an oral sample from patient Feliciana suspected of having Marburg hemorrhagic fever in Kinguangua, near Uige, on May 6, 2005. Christopher Black/WHO/AFP via Getty Images

Currently, there is no specific treatment for Marburg hemorrhagic fever, health agencies say. There’s also no vaccine.

The WHO says that the virus was first discovered in 1967 after it caused “simultaneous” disease outbreaks in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia.

“The outbreak was associated with laboratory work using African green monkeys imported from Uganda,” WHO says on its website about the disease. “Subsequently, outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa (in a person with recent travel history to Zimbabwe) and Uganda. In 2008, two independent cases were reported in travellers who had visited a cave inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies in Uganda.”

Signs and Symptoms

The CDC says that symptoms of the virus occur after about five to 10 days. They include a sudden onset of fever, chills, headache, and myalgia (weakness).

“Around the fifth day after the onset of symptoms, a maculopapular rash, most prominent on the trunk (chest, back, stomach), may occur,” the agency fact sheet says. “Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, a sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea may then appear.”

But “symptoms become increasingly severe and can include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction,” it says. Some isolated reports say that Marburg—like Ebola—can cause bleeding from the eyes, gums, nose, and other areas.