Viral Hemorrhagic Fever

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of Rift Valley fever that began in South Africa in February has expanded to five of the country's nine provinces, with 63 human cases and 2 deaths in three provinces, according to national and international health agencies.

(CIDRAP News) – Scientists from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Africa have for the first time isolated Marburg viruses from fruit bats found in a Ugandan cave where humans were infected, a finding that suggests bats may be a natural host of the virus.

(CIDRAP News) – A case of the often deadly Marburg hemorrhagic fever was retrospectively identified in an American who fell ill after a trip to Uganda in January 2008 and eventually recovered, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported recently.

The case appears to be the first Marburg infection reported in the United States.

(CIDRAP News) – Health officials in the Philippines recently announced that a worker who had contact with sick pigs tested positive for antibodies to the Ebola Reston virus, a pathogen that was discovered about a month ago for the first time in pigs.

Eric Tayag, head of the National Epidemiology Centre, said the case represent the first known pig-to-human Ebola Reston virus transmission, according to a Jan 24 Associated Press (AP) report.

(CIDRAP News) – The World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that laboratory officials in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have confirmed a third case of Ebola hemorrhagic fever.

Laboratory analysis was performed at the DRC's national lab in Kinshasa, a lab in Franceville, Gabon, and at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases in South Africa, according to a Jan 2 statement from the WHO.

Editor's note: This story was revised Dec 30 to make clear that as of Dec 29, only two cases in the outbreak had been confirmed as Ebola. During the DRC's 2007 outbreak the government confirmed 17 cases, down from 25 it reported earlier, and initial reports during that outbreak mentioned as many as 395 suspected Ebola cases.  Some of the suspected patients had other diseases, including shigellosis.

(CIDRAP News) – The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today announced that the Ebola virus has been found in pigs for the first time, a discovery researchers made when they were investigating outbreaks of porcine reproductive respiratory syndrome (PRRS) at several swine producers in the Philippines.

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers from the United States and Uganda today released the first full scientific report on a new Ebola species that struck western Uganda late last year and was linked to 149 suspected cases and 37 deaths, at least 4 of them healthcare providers.

– WASHINGTON, DC (CIDRAP News) – Health authorities must remain alert to new and renascent disease threats, experts warned this week at an international medical meeting.

(CIDRAP News) – A fifth case has been confirmed in the recent outbreak of febrile illnesses caused by a mysterious virus in South Africa, and preliminary tests have supported earlier suspicions that it is new member of the arenavirus family, South African health officials announced recently.