How did Marburg Virus Disease Start?

According to the WHO, Marburg is a highly contagious viral hemorrhagic fever that belongs to the same virus family as the more well-known Ebola virus disease.

The Marburg virus (MARV) first appeared in August 1967, when laboratory workers in Marburg, Germany, and Frankfurt, Germany, as well as Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia), became infected with a previously unknown infectious agent.

Seven of the 31 patients (25 primary, six secondary infections) developed a severe disease that led to death.

The African green monkeys (Chlorocebus aethiops) that were imported from Uganda and shipped to all three locations were the source of the infection.

The primary infections occurred ironically while the monkeys were being necropsied for kidney cells to culture poliomyelitis vaccine strains.

The etiologic agent was isolated, characterised, and identified in less than three months by a collaborative effort of scientists in Marburg and Hamburg and was later confirmed by Kunz and colleagues and Kissling and colleagues

The pathogen was named Marburg virus after the city with the most cases, and it was the first time a filovirus was isolated.

To date, there have been 452 documented cases and 368 documented deaths due to MVD.