|
|
Article: Studies of reservoir hosts for Marburg virus.(RESEARCH)
- Article from:
- Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Article date:
- December 1, 2007
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2007 U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
To determine reservoir hosts for Marburg virus (MARV), we examined the fauna of a mine in northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. The mine was associated with a protracted outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever during 1998-2000. We found MARV nucleic acid in 12 bats, comprising 3.0%-3.6% of 2 species of insectivorous bat and 1 species of fruit bat. We found antibody to the virus in the serum of 9.7% of 1 of the insectivorous species and in 20.5% of the fruit bat species, but attempts to isolate virus were unsuccessful.
**********
Marburg virus (MARV) and Ebola virus, members of the family Filoviridae, cause outbreaks of severe hemorrhagic fever in ...