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A 30-year-old hospital technician died of the Marburg virus this weekend in Uganda

A 30-year-old hospital technician died of the Marburg virus this weekend in Uganda, health officials there announced Sunday. Marburg, like Ebola, is a hemorrhagic fever. It's rare but severe. According to NBC's Monday report, officials in Uganda have quarantined about 80 people who came into contact with the victim, one of whom — the man's brother — has developed the early symptoms of the disease. Sixty of those quarantined are health-care workers.

The Marburg virus is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected persons. Transmission of the Marburg virus also occurred by handling ill or dead infected wild animals (monkeys, fruit bats).

Marburg virus was first recognized in 1967, when outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia).

On 5 October 2014, the Ministry of Health (MoH) of Uganda notified WHO of a confirmed case of Marburg virus disease (MVD) in Kampala, Uganda.

After an incubation period of 5-10 days, the onset of the disease is sudden and is marked by fever, chills, headache, and myalgia. Around the fifth day after the onset of symptoms, a maculopapular rash, most prominent on the trunk (chest, back, stomach), may occur. Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, a sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea then may appear. Symptoms become increasingly severe and may include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction.

A previous abbreviation for the virus was MBGV.

Marburg and virulent Ebola viruses are maintained in hosts that are rare and have little contact with humans or do not readily transmit virus. Bats (particularly solitary microchiropteran species) are leading contenders as reservoir hosts. Virus transfer to humans occurs by contact with the primary reservoir or via an intermediate animal that acquired infection from the reservoir and is, in turn, hunted by humans. An interesting possibility is that filoviruses may be arthropod or plant viruses, with non—blood-feeding arthropods transmitting the virus to intermediate hosts or humans during oral ingestion or envenomation. Paradoxically, in Africa, Ebola virus disease has high lethality and high seroprevalence as determined by the IFA test. If the seroreactivity is confirmed by more specific tests, then the Ebola virus serogroup in Africa probably contains an antigenically cross-reactive, enzootic, nonpathogenic agent(s). Such viruses may have separate life cycles or may give rise to virulent strains by mutation.