Marburg virus

Marburg virus (MARV) causes severe disease in humans and nonhuman primates in the form of viral hemorrhagic fever. MARV is a Select Agent, World Health Organization Risk Group 4 Pathogen (requiring Biosafety Level 4-equivalent containment), National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Category A Priority Pathogen, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Category A Bioterrorism Agent, and listed as a Biological Agent for Export Control by the Australia Group.

Use of term
Marburg virus (abbreviated MARV) was first described in 1967. Today, the virus is one of two members of the species Marburg marburgvirus, which is included into the genus Marburgvirus, family Filoviridae, order Mononegavirales. The name Marburg virus is derived from Marburg (the city in Hesse, WestGermany, where the virus was first discovered) and the taxonomic suffix virus. Marburg virus is pronounced ˌmɑrbərg vɑɪrəs (IPA) or mahr-berg vahy-ruhs in English phonetic notation. According to the rules for taxon naming established by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), the name Marburg virus is always to be capitalized, but is never italicized, and may be abbreviated (with MARV being the official abbreviation).

Previous designations
Marburg virus was first introduced under this name in 1967. In 2005, the virus name was changed to Lake Victoria marburgvirus, albeit without differentiating this name from the introduced species Lake Victoria marburgvirus However, most scientific articles continued to refer to Marburg virus. Consequently, in 2010, the name Marburg virus was reinstated. A previous abbreviations for the virus was MBGV.

Virus inclusion criteria
A virus of the species Marburg marburgvirus is a Marburg virus if it has the properties of Marburg marburgviruses and if its genome diverges from that of the prototype Marburg marburgvirus, Marburg virus variant Musoke (MARV/Mus), by <10% at the nucleotide level.

Disease
MARV is one of two marburgviruses that causes Marburg virus disease (MVD) in humans (in the literature also often referred to as Marburg hemorrhagic fever, MHF). In the past, MARV has caused the following MVD outbreaks:


 * A total of 154 cases of filovirus infection were recorded during this outbreak. The case fatality was 83%. Two different filoviruses, MARV and Ravn virus (RAVV) cocirculated and caused disease. It has never been published how many cases and deaths were due to MARV or RAVV infection.

Ecology
In 2009, the successful isolation of infectious MARV was reported from caught healthy Egyptian rousettes (Rousettus aegytiacus) This isolation, together with the isolation of infectious RAVV, strongly suggests that Old World fruit bats are involved in the natural maintenance of marburgviruses. Further studies are necessary to establish whether Egyptian rousettes are the actual hosts of MARV and RAVV or whether they get infected via contact with another animal and therefore serve only as intermediate hosts.