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The Marburg virus — a lethal pathogen similar to Ebola — is spreading rapidly in both Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania, and could soon expand beyond Africa, The Daily Beast reports. "It is important to systematically assess patients for the possibility of viral hemorrhagic fevers… through a triage and evaluation process, including a detailed travel history," the CDC advised on Thursday,

After two deadly outbreaks of the rare Marburg virus disease in Africa, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning US doctors to be on the lookout for patients exhibiting symptoms. In the agency’s health advisory, issued Thursday, officials urged clinicians to be vigilant due to the “potential for imported cases.” There are no reported US cases of the virus, and the risk here is low, the CDC said. Officials recommend doctors assess patients who develop hemorrhagic fevers. MVD can be caused by the Marburg or Ravn viruses, and has appeared this year in two seemingly independent outbreaks in...

One of my favorite non-religious fiction books of all time is World War Z (An Oral History of the Zombie War) by author Max Brooks (the son of Mel Brooks). Despite its ominous title, the book isn’t so much about zombies and gore, as it is about human behavior and what people do when a crisis happens. What was more fascinating, was the way the book was formatted. It was written in such a way as to chronicle the global crisis after the fact, as the main character was tasked by the United Nations with documenting the viral outbreak from...

A plane from Nigeria landed at JFK Airport Thursday with a male passenger aboard who had died during the flight after a fit of vomiting — and CDC officials conducted a “cursory” exam before announcing there was no Ebola and turning the corpse over to Port Authority cops to remove, Rep. Peter King said on Thursday. The congressman was so alarmed by the incident — and by what he and employees see as troubling Ebola vulnerabilities at JFK — that he fired off a letter to the federal Department of Homeland Security demanding more training and tougher protocols for handling...

Ebola, MEnterovirus, and Chikungunyaarburg, - these diseases were not even on the radar of most people coming into 2014, but now each one of them is making headline news. So why is this happening? Why are so many deadly diseases breaking out all over the world right now? Is there some kind of connection, or is the fact that so many horrible diseases are arising all at once just a giant coincidence? And this could be just the beginning. For example, there are now more than a million cases of Chikungunya in Central and South America, and authorities are projecting...

Marburg breaks out in Uganda

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas is carefully evaluating a patient who may have Ebola Virus Disease. Based on the patient’s symptoms and recent travel history, the patient has been admitted into “strict isolation,” said spokeswoman Candace White in a prepared statement. Preliminary test results are expected Tuesday. The hospital is following Centers for Disease Control and Texas Department of Heath recommendations to ensure the safety of patients, staff, volunteers, physicians and visitors, White said. In August, Dr. Kent Brantly, a Fort Worth doctor who contracted Ebola while working as an aid worker in Africa,

The first known case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever in the United States was treated at Lutheran Medical Center in January 2008, it was announced Friday. The disease, which is caused by a virus indigenous to Africa, is transmitted by contact with infected animals or the bodily fluids of infected humans. The patient, who was not identified, had apparently contracted the virus when he visited Uganda. While in that country, he had visited a python cave in Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth Park, where he came into contact with fruit bats, which are capable of harboring the Marburg virus. The CDC...

Researchers reported for the first time last week that they have found the Marburg virus in a nonprimate species — bats. Now, they have turned their attention to a bat-infested lead and gold mine in western Uganda, in an attempt to determine if bats harbor the disease between periodic outbreaks in southern Africa. One miner working in the mine died of Marburg disease on July 14, and several others apparently recovered from it. “We’re trying to see where this goes,” Jonathan Towner, the lead author of the report, published Aug. 22 in the online journal PloS ONE, said in a...

Associated Press An outbreak of a deadly Ebola-like disease at a mine in western Uganda has been contained, health officials said Thursday. The Marburg virus, a rare hemorrhagic illness, killed a 29-year-old last month. The country had not seen a Marburg outbreak for 30 years. Health Minister Dr. Stephen Mallinga said the 21-day maximum incubation period has passed with no new cases reported. "Theoretically the transmission chain has been broken, the transmission has been stopped and the outbreak contained," he said. The disease has a death rate that can be higher than 90 percent and no treatment or vaccine. Marburg...

Scientists trying to develop vaccines against Africa's deadly Marburg and Ebola viruses are reporting an important milestone, a new type of vaccine that prevents the diseases in monkeys. Successfully immunizing monkeys is an essential step toward the goal of producing vaccines for people. Two new vaccines, one for Marburg and one for Ebola, were 100 percent effective in a study of 12 macaques being published today in the journal Nature Medicine. Monkeys given just one shot of vaccine and later injected with a high dose of virus did not even get sick. Normally, all the animals would be expected to...

WASHINGTON, April 12 (Reuters) - An outbreak of deadly Marburg virus in Angola is probably not a global threat but international experts are working to bring it under control, the head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday. The hemorrhagic fever, a relative of the Ebola virus, has killed some 200 people and terrified people in Uige province, northeast of Angola's capital Luanda. It causes fever, vomiting and diarrhea and can cause internal and external bleeding. The virus can be found in all the bodily fluids so health care workers must take extreme care, CDC...

Marburg haemorrhagic fever in Angola - update 9 8 April 2005 As of 7 April, 205 cases of Marburg haemorrhagic fever have been reported in Angola. Of these, 180 have died. Zaire Province has reported its first 6 cases, bringing the number of affected provinces to seven, all concentrated in the north-western part of the country. Mobile surveillance teams in Uige were forced to suspend operations yesterday when vehicles were attacked and damaged by local residents. As the situation has not improved, no surveillance teams were operational today in this province, which remains the epicentre of the outbreak. WHO staff...