A co-worker told me of a case where a man fell ill after traveling, and was admitted to the hospital and died without diagnosis. Because of routine infection control measures, no one else got sick. A year later, analysis of stored samples revealed that he had Marburg.
I'm sure that you are aware that Marburg is another filovirus, and is almost identical to Ebola in disease characteristics.
Fun bit of history: Marburg was first identified because of an outbreak in Marburg, Germany, after it was imported by a traveler. Unlike all of these doomsday scenarios so popular with the conspiracy-theorists, this importation did not spread around the world and kill off 80% of the population--it was quickly contained there in Marburg. That was achieved because of routine infection control measures, nothing else--the medical staff had no clue what the disease was.
I appreciate the presence of another logical voice on the forum. The doomsday scenarios need to be countered with facts--spreading falsities about the disease might be amusing to the conspiracy-minded, but it only makes the situation worse.
I, for one, will be glad when people finally get bored with Ebola and it fades into the background again.
Oops, I should have fact-checked before hitting the “post” button. The Marburg virus was imported into Germany in an African green monkey. Laboratory workers first became ill. Altogether, 31 people became ill and 7 died. And the virus never spread beyond that initial outbreak.
Marburg spreads the same way as Ebola.