Why the Deadly Marburg Virus Is an Increasing Threat in Africa

Marburg virus had killed 12 people in Rwanda as of early October, touching off the nation’s first confirmed outbreak of the highly virulent disease that can have a fatality rate of close to 90%. From the same family as the Ebola virus, Marburg caused occasional outbreaks and sporadic cases mostly in Central and Southern Africa until Guinea, in West Africa, confirmed a single, deadly case in August 2021. Then in the following years, it popped up for the first time in other countries on the continent. The latest cases show once again how a pathogen found in fruit bats can cross the species barrier to infect humans, and raise the risk of a wider outbreak.

It’s a member of the Filoviridae family of viruses that can cause severe and potentially fatal hemorrhagic fever in people. Marburg virus disease was recognized in 1967, when outbreaks occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, both in Germany, and in the Serbian capital, Belgrade. Cases were traced to green monkeys imported from Uganda for research and polio vaccine production. Nine years later, a closely related virus was found to have sparked a deadly outbreak in a village near the Ebola River in Congo, giving that disease its name. Since then, many more viruses known to cause similar illnesses in humans have been discovered around the world, with globalization, international travel and climate change aiding their spread.