US health body sounds alert after deadly Marburg virus spreads in Africa

The health body has also sounded an alert, cautioning all travellers going to Tanzania and Guinea to take all measures of protection to prevent catching the fatal infection.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has the Marburg virus causes life-threatening illness and has the potential to trigger an epidemic.

The National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases will be sent by the CDC to respond to the outbreaks in Tanzania and Guinea, CDC has said.

The first infection was reported in February in Equatorial Guinea and later WHO recorded nine confirmed cases and 20 probable cases, all which have died.

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that the Marburg virus disease is an extremely lethal illness that leads to haemorrhagic fever and has a mortality rate of as high as 88 percent. It belongs to the same filovirus family as the Ebola virus, which wreaked havoc in past outbreaks throughout Africa. The African fruit bat serves as the natural carrier of the Marburg virus, but it does not become ill from the virus.

The Marburg virus can be transmitted by bats and other infected animals. Symptoms of the viral disease include high fever, internal and external bleeding, and severe headaches.

After being infected, the Marburg virus can spread to another person by coming into direct contact (through cuts in the skin or ruptured mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of an infected person, as well as by coming into contact with contaminated surfaces and materials (like bedding and clothing).

There is no vaccine or cure for this virus, however, WHO says early candidate vaccines as well as blood products, immune therapies and drug therapies are being studied as possible treatments.