News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – An outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has grown to 20 cases in western Uganda, and 10 people in two of Uganda's central districts have contracted Ebola hemorrhagic fever, the World Health Organization (WHO) said recently.

(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) – 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.

(CIDRAP News) – A Dutch woman who fell ill with Marburg hemorrhagic fever after visiting a bat-infested cave in Uganda has died, Dutch authorities announced today.

Authorities said the 40-year-old woman, who was not identified, died overnight at Leiden University Medical Centre, according to reports from Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP). The woman's illness was first announced yesterday.