History

In 1967, a disease outbreak occurred in a laboratory in Marburg, Germany, where the kidneys of cercopithecoid (Green African; vervet) monkeys were being taken out for preparation of cell cultures. Twenty-seven laboratory workers (including a worker in Yugoslavia) fell ill with a grave illness, and seven died. There were four secondary cases in total (including the wife of an infected laboratory worker in Yugoslavia secondarily infected by sexual intercourse), but none fatal. Early suspicions focused on yellow fever, but this was soon ruled out (Casals 1971). In due course, a virus was isolated and found to be quite distinct from any other known viruses. Electron micrographs revealed a virus with bizarre morphology of a type never seen before (Peters, Muller, and Slenckza 1971). Pictures taken resembled photographs of a bowl of spaghetti. The agent was named Marburg virus and the disease Marburg disease. Strict monkey quarantines were initiated. No further cases were seen in laboratory workers.

An intensive and extensive series of field studies were initiated in East Africa, which had been the monkeys’ homeland (Henderson et al. 1971; Hennessen 1971; Kalter 1971). No virus recoveries were made from any of the monkeys examined. In later years, serologic studies involving humans and primates, and also rodents, have been carried out in many regions, as can be seen in Table VIII.86.1.

The first Marburg cases seen in Africa occurred in February of 1975. A young Australian couple touring in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) became ill by the time they got to South Africa. They were admitted to a major hospital in Johannesburg where the young man died and the young lady recovered. A nurse tending them also sickened and recovered.