Post by Nadica (She/Her) on Oct 3, 2024 1:26:22 GMT
Hamburg train station platforms closed over suspected Marburg cases - Published Oct 2, 2024
by Maeve Cullinan
Parts of Hamburg’s main train station were cordoned off on Wednesday afternoon over two train passengers suspected of carrying the highly lethal Marburg virus.
Emergency crews wearing full protective gear boarded a train that had come from Frankfurt, after a man, said to be a 26-year-old medical student, and his girlfriend reported flu-like symptoms.
The man had reportedly travelled to Germany from Rwanda on Wednesday morning and had direct contact with a patient infected with the hemorrhagic fever, which comes from the same family as Ebola and has a fatality rate of nearly 90 per cent.
Other passengers were evacuated from the train and the area was cordoned off for several hours.
One of the two suspected Marburg patients began vomiting on the train.
“He then called the fire department because he suspected something was wrong,” a spokesperson for the Hamburg Fire Department told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper.
The pair were taken for treatment at University Hospital Eppendorf, known for its expertise in treating tropical diseases. Their luggage was also confiscated as an infection protection measure, Bild reported.
Rwanda is currently battling what is believed to be the fourth largest outbreak of Marburg in history.
At least nine people have died and dozens more have been infected since the first cases were reported last Friday.
Marburg spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of infected people.
Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, muscle pains, diarrhoea, and vomiting. In severe cases, death occurs from extreme blood loss.
There are no specific treatments or licensed vaccines available for the Marburg virus, but a range of therapeutics are currently in development, according to the WHO.
The virus was first recognised after outbreaks in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in 1967.
The infections were traced back to a shared shipment of infected African green monkeys.
Thirty-one people became ill then, initially laboratory workers followed by several medical personnel and family members who had cared for them.
by Maeve Cullinan
Parts of Hamburg’s main train station were cordoned off on Wednesday afternoon over two train passengers suspected of carrying the highly lethal Marburg virus.
Emergency crews wearing full protective gear boarded a train that had come from Frankfurt, after a man, said to be a 26-year-old medical student, and his girlfriend reported flu-like symptoms.
The man had reportedly travelled to Germany from Rwanda on Wednesday morning and had direct contact with a patient infected with the hemorrhagic fever, which comes from the same family as Ebola and has a fatality rate of nearly 90 per cent.
Other passengers were evacuated from the train and the area was cordoned off for several hours.
One of the two suspected Marburg patients began vomiting on the train.
“He then called the fire department because he suspected something was wrong,” a spokesperson for the Hamburg Fire Department told Germany’s Die Welt newspaper.
The pair were taken for treatment at University Hospital Eppendorf, known for its expertise in treating tropical diseases. Their luggage was also confiscated as an infection protection measure, Bild reported.
Rwanda is currently battling what is believed to be the fourth largest outbreak of Marburg in history.
At least nine people have died and dozens more have been infected since the first cases were reported last Friday.
Marburg spreads through contact with the bodily fluids of infected people.
Symptoms include high fever, severe headache, muscle pains, diarrhoea, and vomiting. In severe cases, death occurs from extreme blood loss.
There are no specific treatments or licensed vaccines available for the Marburg virus, but a range of therapeutics are currently in development, according to the WHO.
The virus was first recognised after outbreaks in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany and in Belgrade, Yugoslavia (now Serbia) in 1967.
The infections were traced back to a shared shipment of infected African green monkeys.
Thirty-one people became ill then, initially laboratory workers followed by several medical personnel and family members who had cared for them.