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Two people were taken to hospital. © André Lenthe/Lenthe Medien/dpa
A possible case of the Marburg virus concerns the authorities in Hamburg. Those affected landed in Frankfurt and continued on by train.
Hamburg – Two people are being medically examined in Hamburg because they are suspected of being infected with the life-threatening Marburg virus. According to the Hamburg social authorities, one of the two people had recently worked in a hospital in Rwanda where people infected with the virus were treated.
The two people now being treated in Hamburg had flown on a plane from Rwanda to Frankfurt on Wednesday night and from there took a train to the Hanseatic city.
Transmission via body fluids
The Marburg virus can cause high fever and symptoms such as muscle pain, abdominal cramps, diarrhea and bloody vomit. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 24 to 88 percent of those infected have died in previous outbreaks.
According to the US health authority CDC, there has been no outbreak of the disease in Germany since 1967. The pathogen is named after the German city because laboratory workers there were infected with the previously unknown virus in test monkeys in 1967.
People become infected through direct contact with the body fluids of infected people, such as blood, and not through the air. The incubation period is 2 to 21 days. According to the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM), one of the reservoirs and a vector for the Marburg virus is the Egyptian fruit bat.
Worry about infection
According to the authorities, one of the two people now being treated in Hamburg contacted doctors in Hamburg during the trip because he was worried that he had become infected with a tropical disease in Rwanda. According to consistent media reports, it is a medical student in his mid-20s.
The man had flu-like symptoms and was slightly nauseous, a fire department spokesman said. He didn’t have a fever.
The train traveled from Frankfurt to Hamburg. © Bodo Marks/dpa
The responsible health authority in Hamburg decided to immediately isolate both people at the main train station and take them to a special area at the Eppendorf University Hospital (UKE) for further examination. All medically necessary examinations were started there immediately. A variety of diseases can usually be diagnosed within 24 hours.
As a precautionary measure, the contact details of train passengers who may have had contact with the two were recorded. The authority said quarantine measures are currently not necessary. According to Deutsche Bahn, an average of 275 passengers sat on the train.
Outbreak in Rwanda
Marburg fever recently broke out in Rwanda. So far, ten patients have died from the viral disease, Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana reported on Platform X. A total of 29 cases were confirmed as of October 1st. The 19 patients currently being treated are mostly medical staff and are isolated.
