Forty-Five Years of Marburg Virus Research

Brauburger, Kristina; Hume, Adam J.; Mühlberger, Elke; Olejnik, Judith

Many of the initial symptoms may persist in the early organ phase, and patients may sustain a high fever. They may additionally display neurological symptoms including encephalitis, confusion, delirium, irritability, and aggression. Patients can also develop dyspnea and abnormal vascular permeability, particularly conjunctival injection and edema. During the latter part of this phase more than 75% of patients present with some form of clear hemorrhagic manifestation such as petechiae, mucosal bleeding, melena, bloody diarrhea, hematemesis, and ecchymoses. Due to the unusualness of hemorrhagic symptoms, diseases caused by filoviruses have sometimes been referred to as hemorrhagic fevers (Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever (MHF) and Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF)), although these terms are currently disfavored since not all patients display hemorrhagic symptoms. At this stage, multiple organs are affected including the pancreas, kidney, and liver. Elevated serum activity of a number of liver enzymes including SGOT and SGPT have been observed in most patients sampled.