Marburg—Similar to Ebola

Since Monday, I have been tracking the news about an outbreak of the Marburg hemorrhagic fever, a really nasty virus, in Angola.

Try this article for some scary reading, especially the following (emphasis mine):

“The latest figures available show the disease had killed 117 out of 124 people known to be infected by Tuesday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta says the usual death rate is 23 percent to 25 percent, but few infected patients are reported to have recovered this outbreak. There is no known cure.”

Recommended Reading: The Demon in the Freezer, by Richard Preston, and The Hot Zone, also by Preston.

4 Replies to “Marburg—Similar to Ebola”

  1. Apparently itÂ’s now up to 173, out of 200 victims. ThatÂ’s an 86.5% mortality rate. I have also read reports (which seem to have been long in coming) that the outbreak has spread quite far beyond the initially affected region.

  2. Although the spread of the Marburg virus has slowed, there have been 273 identified cases, one as recently as Wednesday. So far 253 people have died from the virus in Angola. thatÂ’s 92.7% mortality.
    Good thing this isnÂ’t an airborne virus.

  3. From Citizen, among other sources: “LUANDA – Angola is officially free of Marburg fever after an outbreak of the Ebola-like disease that killed 227 of the 252 people it infected over the last year.”

    That’s a 90% fatality rate, and a period of 8 months before the disease was under control. Bear in mind that’s in a sparsely populated area which was relatively easy to contain, and which was not connected to travel hubs which would rapidly spread the disease.

    Imagine New York City, or Miami.

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