For the first time ever, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea are both experiencing simultaneous Marburg virus epidemics. Although closely linked to Ebola and as lethal, the Marburg virus has until recently been relatively rare.
The Marburg virus, a disease similar to Ebola, has broken out in Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea, and there are concerns that the virus may be spreading undetected in the latter country.
While there have been 15 confirmed cases of Marburg in Equatorial Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) is concerned that the official tally is an underestimation of the real toll of the disease, with the possibility that there is “undetected community spread of the virus in the country.” The virus has broken out a dozen times since the late 1970s, mostly in Africa.
The virus’s natural host is the Egyptian fruit bat, which transmits it to humans either directly or via an intermediate host such as monkeys. While most outbreaks have been small, with no more than a dozen people affected, the fatality rate is close to 50%, according to the WHO. Unlike Ebola, there is no vaccine or post-exposure treatment for Marburg, and there is no market for one either.
There is also no market for a Marburg vaccine, which could lead to a problem similar to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that killed more than 11,000 people. The outbreak of a global Marburg pandemic is less likely than that of Covid-19, since the virus only becomes contagious when symptoms appear, and it is much less transmissible than Covid-19.
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