First cases of the deadly Marburg virus suspected in Europe as a 26-year-old medical student who had recently returned from Rwanda and his girlfriend fell ill at Hamburg train station
One of the most deadly viruses ever discovered appears to have arrived in Europe after two suspected cases were detected in Germany.
A medical student who had recently returned from Africa and his girlfriend triggered an emergency at Hamburg’s main train station as they were suspected of having the lethal Marburg virus. It can cause massive bleeding including from the eyes, nose and mouth and latest data on confirmed cases in Rwanda suggests it is likely to kill at least half those it infects.
Emergency crews in full protective gear boarded a train from Frankfurt to isolate the couple after one of them started vomiting and raised the alarm. Politico reported that police closed two tracks at the station for several hours after all passengers were evacuated. The tabloid Bild has reported that the student had arrived by plane directly from Rwanda, where he’d been in contact with a patient who was later diagnosed as infected with Marburg. Rwanda, a landlocked country in East Africa, is currently experiencing an outbreak of the deadly virus. According to the country’s health ministry, eight people have died from the virus since last Sunday, while 26 cases have been confirmed.
The Hamburg Fire Department told the Die Welt newspaper one of the suspected cases was a 26-year-old medical student, adding that after vomiting “he then called the fire department because he suspected something was wrong”. Marburg virus is much less contagious than Covid-19 – because it is spread via closer contact, with bodily fluids often when performing activities such as changing bed sheets – but it is much more deadly should you catch it. Other symptoms can include convulsions, bloody vomiting, diarrhoea and a rash on the torso. It has a mortality rate of up to 88%, according to the World Health Organisation, but it is thought this could be around 50% in developed nations where there is better access to healthcare. The German student and his girlfriend were taken to the Eppendorf University Hospital, which specialises in tropical diseases and their luggage was impounded.
For those infected only supportive treatment is available, such as keeping patients hydrated, in the hope of giving the immune system the best chance to fight it off. In severe cases it can also result in jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock and multi-organ failure. The WHO assesses the risk of this outbreak as “very high” in Rwanda, “high” at the regional level, and “low” at the global level – meaning it is unlikely to become a global pandemic. That is because it is not as contagious as Covid-19 which could spread via tiny respiratory particles which could be inhaled, or come into contact with the eyes, nose or mouth.
Marburg virus is more similar to Ebola spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, usually surfaces and materials such as bedding. Relatives and carers of infected people are mainly at risk. There are no known cases of Marburg viruses reaching the UK. It has only reached the US once before in 2008, when it was diagnosed in a woman who had returned from a two-week safari in Uganda. She was hospitalised but later made a full recovery.
