The Marburg virus

The test result in Hamburg: No fatal hemophilia

Two Germans who returned from Rwanda have tested negative for the dreaded Marburg virus, German media reports.

The woman and the man were placed in isolation after developing flu-like symptoms on board a train to Hamburg. The man raised the alarm himself about the symptoms during the train journey and parts of Hamburg's central station had to be blocked off.

The virus alarm has received a lot of attention in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

There is an outbreak in Rwanda. Since last Friday, eleven people have died in the country. Marburg is similar to Ebola and has a fatality rate of up to 88 percent.

.......................................

Task: Symptoms before the couple boarded the train

Two train travelers were taken to hospital in Hamburg yesterday after showing suspected symptoms of the dreaded Marburg virus. Several media reported that Germany was holding its breath waiting for the test results.

By lunchtime on Thursday, however, it was clear that the couple did not carry the Marburg virus.

The couple concerned was a medical student and his girlfriend, who both arrived in Frankfurt from Rwanda on Wednesday morning. In Rwanda, the man is said to have been in contact with a person who later turned out to be carrying the deadly infection.

According to the first reports, the couple developed flu-like symptoms on board the train to Hamburg, but according to new information in Bild, the man must have felt sick even before he got on. The man called from the train and raised the alarm that he was ill.

Rwanda has an ongoing outbreak of the disease. Eleven people have died since Friday.

.........................................

Eleven dead in the outbreak of the Marburg virus in Rwanda

Rwanda is to begin clinical trials for vaccines and treatments for the Marburg virus, writes Reuters. The country has suffered its first outbreak of the dreaded contagion. Eleven people have died so far.

It is a hemorrhagic fever with symptoms such as vomiting and muscle and stomach pain. The mortality rate of 88 percent can be compared to Ebola. The infection is not airborne but is spread by the infected via bodily fluids.

The authorities are monitoring 410 people who have been in contact with the infected.