Berlin.
Marburg virus cases are increasing in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania. Can the local outbreak spill over to Germany?
People in full-body protective suits transporting body bags en masse in West Africa: the images of the Ebola outbreak from 2014 to 2016 were shocking – but far removed from the perspective of the time. Then came the corona virus and showed how quickly local outbreaks can develop into a pandemic. Because in Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania there are now increasing cases of the so-called Marburg-Virus appear, the question arises once again: could the virus become a global threat across national borders?
Since February, nine cases of the Marburg virus have been detected in Equatorial Guinea, and seven people have died. Tanzania has similarly high death rates, where eight infections were confirmed last week and five people died of the disease. “The Marburg virus is the one Todesrate between 25 and sometimes up to 90 percent – depending on the outbreak, where it takes place and what the conditions are like,” says Stephan Becker, head of the Institute of Virology at the Philipps University of Marburg, in an interview with this editorial team serious illness.”
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The exciter who like that Ebola-Virus belongs to the filoviruses and was last transmitted by Egyptian fruit bats. “The problem is that you often don’t know exactly how the first person in the chain of infection was really infected,” says Becker. It is conceivable that people become infected in the vicinity of caves in which the animals live. The flying foxes are also hunted and slaughtered – through close contact with the carcasses, infection is then conceivable.
Marburg virus: In contrast to Corona, clear symptoms
Is this Virus once transmitted, it can also be passed on from person to person – for example through close physical contact. “We know from the Ebola virus that the virus titer, i.e. the amount of virus, in the skin of the infected person is particularly high in later phases of the infection,” says Becker. The pathogens can be ingested through small wounds in the skin or body fluids such as blood.
If people are infected, they are symptoms clearly. It is “not at all comparable” to Corona, says Becker. In addition to a very high fever, those affected suffer from diarrhea. “Those who then die of the disease also often have hemorrhagic fever.” Blood coagulation is disturbed, small clots form in the blood vessels, which means that organs are no longer supplied with oxygen. “This then leads to a shock and that is responsible for the death of the patient.”
Epidemic possible – pandemic unlikely
Above all, the experts are preparing for the outbreak in Äquatorialguinea Concern because there have been cases 150 kilometers away. The decisive factor is that infection chains can probably no longer be traced. “But that is the key to success in containing such epidemics,” says Becker. A corresponding number of resources would have to be mobilized to trace contacts. “You really have to be careful now that the situation like the Ebola outbreak in the Congo does not arise.”
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Die Ebola outbreaks in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea between 2014 and 2016 and later in Congo came quite suddenly, which is why researchers are closely monitoring the Marburg virus outbreak. “We cannot say how this will continue – that is the problem,” says Peter Kremsner, Director of the Institute for Tropical Medicine at the University Hospital in Tübingen, this editorial. In most cases, outbreaks of Ebola and Marburg viruses are brief and self-limiting. But the major Ebola outbreaks have shown “that things can come and go differently.”
An epidemic cannot therefore be ruled out. The spillover of the virus to Europe in the sense of a Pandemic However, Kremsner considers it unlikely. “The risk of the virus spreading in Europe is small,” Becker confirms this assessment. Although isolated cases could be imported to Europe, Ebola cases, for example, were usually discovered quickly.
Vaccine against Marburg virus in prospect
The Marburg virus, which was first transmitted from test monkeys to laboratory workers in the small town of Hesse in 1967, differs significantly from the corona virus. “The difference is that the corona virus is transmitted through the air and also at a time when people don’t even realize that they are infected,” says Becker. The situation is different with the Marburg virus, in which those infected are almost only contagious when they are showing clear symptoms. It is correspondingly easier to hygiene measures and contact tracing to contain an outbreak.
For Germany and the EU, the Federal Ministry of Health also assesses the risk from the Marburg virus as “low”. Nevertheless, the situation is being closely monitored. In addition, the ministry led by Karl Lauterbach (SPD) points out that there are currently no direct flights between Deutschland and Tanzania give.
Positive signals are also coming from research. While already one Vaccine against a subtype of the Ebola virus, vaccines against the Marburg virus are now also in prospect. “The developers are on board, the clinical trial protocols are ready, the experts and donors are ready as soon as the national government and researchers give the green light,” said WHO Director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
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