an outbreak of marburg virus in Equatorial Guinea, which has already claimed several lives, has triggered alarm at the World Health Organization, which yesterday called an emergency meeting to analyze the situation.
It is a highly lethal viral hemorrhagic fever (greater than 50%) and highly contagious, which has generally been reported in sub-Saharan Central and West Africa in rapidly controlled sporadic outbreaks.
What is the Marburg virus and how do you get it?
Like other diseases of its type caused by filamentous viruses (filoviruses), and as described in the Manual Merck (main diagnostic reference in a large part of the world) the Marburg virus is contracted through skin and mucous membrane contact with body fluids (saliva, blood, vomit, urine, feces, sweat, semen) from symptomatic infected persons. In most cases, outbreaks are thought to begin after human contact with an infected non-human primate.
It should be noted that surviving the disease is not a guarantee of complete elimination of the virus, and cases of transmission through semen have been documented. up to 7 weeks after clinical recovery.
What are your symptoms?
Symptoms appear after a transmission period of between 2 and 20 days. After this period, the patient presents fever, myalgias (pains) and headaches, and sometimes abdominal pain, nausea and upper respiratory tract symptoms (cough, chest pain and pharyngitis).
As the disease progresses, patients may develop photophobia (increased sensitivity to light)conjunctival injection, jaundice, lymphadenopathy, vomiting, and diarrhea along with some manifestations of central nervous system involvement (delirium, stupor, and coma).
Los bleeding symptoms They begin in the first days of the symptomatic picture in the form of petechiae, ecchymosis, frank bleeding in the mucous membranes, and maculopapular rash.
Loss of blood and fluids can cause severe hypovolemia, hyponatremia, hypokalemia, and hypocalcemia. If the patient survives, during recovery various complications hepatic and neurological.
How is it treated?
For now it does not exist no specific treatment for Marburg virusTherefore, the strategy is directed exclusively at symptom control and providing vital support to the patient until their immune system fights the infection.
There are currently several clinical trials evaluating the efficacy of different vaccines against Marburg virusalthough there is no approved serum to date.