Journal des gènes et des protéines

Marburg Virus Disease: A Review Literature

Sajida Sboui and Ahmed Tabbabi

Marburg virus disease was identified for the first time in 1967 during an epidemic in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany, after infected monkeys were imported from Uganda. Available and scattered data of Marburg virus disease were collected and summarized in the present report. Marburg virus global data including epidemiology, reservoir host, Clinique, diagnostic, transmission and prevention were reviewed. It is a serious and usually fatal disease caused by a virus of the same family as that at the origin of the Ebola virus disease. Because of their extreme pathogenicity and lack of vaccine at present, they are considered a potential biological weapon of category 4. The fatality rate varies from 25% during the first outbreak appeared in a laboratory in 1967 to over 80% between 1998 and 2000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo during the outbreak in Angola in 2005. Roussettus aegyptiacus is considered as the natural reservoir of this virus. The identification of the natural reservoir of this virus should foster the development health measures and prevention campaigns to the population to reduce the apparition and emergence of potential outbreaks of hemorrhagic fever.