Some viruses you do not want to come into contact with: the Ebola virus and the Marburg virus. The chances of you surviving are not high. In the summer of 2012, the Ebola virus again claimed lives in Uganda. The 2014 outbreak is even bigger. Where do Ebola and Marburg come from? How dangerous are these viruses?

Filoviruses

Ebola and Marburg are both filoviruses , viruses that have a relatively large length. Another common feature is the consequence of infection: it is fatal in most cases. An outbreak of either of these is therefore immediate news. In July-August 2012, there was an outbreak of Ebola in Uganda, which claimed at least 16 victims in total.

Ebola and Marburg

The first filovirus was discovered in 1967, when 37 people in the German cities of Marburg and Frankfurt am Main became ill. The disease was named Marburg after one of those German cities . It later turned out that the infection was caused by infected African vervet monkeys, which had been imported to test vaccines against polio. The first report of an Ebola infection dates back to 1976. The virus is named after the river where it was found. Both viruses originated in Africa.

Infection

Contact with bodily fluids (blood, semen, saliva) of infected patients in particular can cause infection. This does not only concern human patients, infected animals also pose a risk. Physical contact with sick or dead bodies of infected people or animals can cause infection. This means that healthcare workers are at extra risk. From the moment of infection, it can take 2 to 21 days for the disease to manifest itself. The average incubation period for Ebola is about one week. Not everyone who becomes infected actually becomes ill, but the percentage that does become ill and can die is high.

Infected

Someone infected with Ebola or Marburg develops a sudden fever, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. Vomiting and diarrhea follow later. So far there is a similarity with a bad flu. However, other symptoms such as skin rash, kidney and liver failure follow. The disease causes tears in blood vessels, causing internal and external bleeding. The patient is bleeding from all body orifices. The patient’s blood can be examined to determine the virus, the virus can therefore be found in large quantities in the blood.

Danger to the doctor

The examination to determine whether a patient is indeed infected with Ebola or Marburg is a great danger for the doctor and the researchers themselves. Preventive measures must therefore be taken to prevent contamination of care workers. Special pressure suits are often used, in which the rescuer receives air through a special hose. The pressure inside the suit is higher than outside, so that in the event of a leak in the suit, there is a movement of air from inside the suit to outside, and not the other way around. Once the blood has been collected and is examined, an isolator is used, a space within which the pressure is lower than outside. This makes it less easy for the virus to spread.

Medicines

There are currently no medicines effective against Ebola or Marburg. A sick person will therefore have to heal on his own. Medical care will mainly focus on preventing further spread on the one hand and providing secondary care to the patient on the other. Consider prevention of contamination with other pathogens, good hygiene, healthy nutrition. Nevertheless, the majority of patients will die from the consequences of the infection.

Vaccine

A vaccine that effectively protects people against possible infections with Ebola or Marburg does not yet exist. Of course, research is being done into this.

Deadly outbreaks

It is not always clear exactly how many people die from an outbreak of Ebola or Marburg. Not all cases of illness are reported or registered. Numbers mentioned below are therefore always approximate. There are probably more and more of them. Below are some registered Ebola or Marburg outbreaks.

• The first recorded outbreak of Ebola was in 1976.
• In 1995 there was an Ebola outbreak in Congo
• In 1998-2000, an outbreak of Marburg virus in Congo-Kinshasa: 123 deaths.
• In 2000, another Marburg outbreak in Congo-Kinshasa: 140 deaths.
• In 2000, there was an outbreak in Uganda in which 224 people succumbed to Ebola.
• 2004-2005: Marburg virus outbreak in Angola: 311 deaths.
• In 2005 there was an outbreak in Congo-Brazzaville
• In August 2007, there was an outbreak of Ebola in Congo-Kinshasa, which killed at least 167 people
• In November 2007, another Ebola outbreak occurred in Uganda, with a slightly different variant of the virus. This time at least 22 people were killed.
• An outbreak of Ebola in Uganda in July-August 2012. There are at least 16 deaths, and a larger group of people are being closely monitored.
• In 2014-2016 there was a major outbreak in various countries in Africa, with twenty-eight thousand infections, which ultimately killed about 11,000 people.

Where do Ebola and Marburg come from?

Because the virus kills its host in a short time, it itself has no chance of survival. An Ebola or Marburg outbreak therefore usually dies out quickly, even if there are dozens to hundreds of victims. Yet the virus reappears somewhere, sometimes only after years. This means that there must be some kind of source somewhere, an organism that can be a carrier of the virus without becoming very ill itself. Scientists think of an animal, such a source of a virus is therefore also called an animal reservoir or zoonosis . Scientists are therefore always looking for possible sources. Because many sick people could be associated with caves and mines, the assumption was that this animal reservoir should also be sought in this area. Indeed, the virus has been found in a bat species Rousettus Aegyptiacus . This animal could have been a carrier of Ebola, but was not sick from it. Some species of flying foxes are also mentioned as possible spreaders of the virus.

Preventing contamination

If an infection has occurred and people have become ill from Ebola or Marburg, measures must be taken quickly to prevent further contamination. The chance that the patient has now infected others around him, family or friends, is high. It is therefore important to monitor this group closely.The steps taken in the event of a possible contamination:

• Isolate potentially infected patients.
• Actively looking for new possible infections
• Reporting cases of illness
• Wear protective clothing. (face mask, gloves, nursing clothes)
• Use of disinfectants
• Information to those involved and family members. Try to prevent new cases of infection with good instruction.
• Deceased buried in plastic bags treated with disinfectant.

It is important to prevent an epidemic from developing. Because there is no treatment yet, infection must be prevented as much as possible.

Danger to human civilization?

The Ebola and Marburg viruses are both deadly viruses. Anyone who becomes infected can become seriously ill within a few days and has a greater chance of dying than of surviving. It is not surprising that Ebola and Marburg are seen as killers. Yet the rapid infection and death of the patient is precisely the weak spot of the virus. A virus needs a host body to reproduce and survive. A smart virus will therefore keep its host alive for as long as possible. Ebola and Marburg are not smart: they kill their host too quickly, thereby reducing their own chance of survival. An outbreak of both diseases can be controlled and kept under control with measures, thus preventing further spread. This would be very different if an infected person could infect other people for weeks before symptoms of illness appeared. As Ebola and Marburg are now, they are deadly for the patient, but not a threat to humanity.

Update

The major Ebola outbreak that occurred in 2014 and 2015 has intensified research into a cure. Work has been done on a vaccination against the dreaded disease. Although the results of this research and the tested medicines are positive in the fight against Ebola, further research and refinement of the medicines found are needed to further reduce Ebola and prevent new infections.