Source of Deadly Marburg Virus Outbreak Sought
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Source of Deadly Marburg Virus Outbreak Sought*
By MARIA CHENG
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 8, 2007; 4:05 PM
LONDON -- Virus hunters swathed in protective gear plan to enter a lead
and gold mine in a remote part of western Uganda this week to search for
bats they believe may be the source of the latest outbreak of a deadly
Ebola-like disease.
Wearing gowns, boots, masks, goggles and leather gloves, the medical
investigators will attempt to catch 1,000 bats to be transported to a
nearby mobile laboratory, where they will take blood samples to look for
antibodies of the Marburg virus, before killing the animals and removing
their livers and spleens.
"It's quite dangerous work, but we hope it will help us answer some
important questions about Marburg," Dr. Pierre Formenty, a hemorrhagic
fever expert at the World Health Organization, said in a telephone
interview Tuesday from Kampala, Uganda. "It will be a very delicate
operation."
Last week, WHO confirmed one case of Marburg in a 29-year-old man who
worked at the mine and who died on July 14.
Marburg is a rare and virulent disease for which there are no cures or
effective treatments. It causes headaches, nausea, diarrhea and
vomiting. In severe cases, the central nervous system is attacked, and
patients may bleed from the eyes, ears and elsewhere.
Scientists are not sure how it is transmitted to humans, but believe
people may become infected by being bitten by bats or by insects or
other animals that have been infected by bats. Another possibility is
that people catch it by breathing in air carrying virus particles from
bat feces. Since Marburg was first identified in 1967, large outbreaks
have been reported in Congo, Angola and other countries.
"If we knew what the animal reservoir was, we would have a better chance
of stopping the infection," Formenty said, adding that experts could
then more precisely warn people about which behaviors _ and animals _
were particularly risky. That "would open up new avenues for future
treatments and developing vaccines."
Formenty and about two dozen other experts from WHO, the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, Medecins Sans Frontieres, the
Ugandan Ministry of Health and other agencies will be involved in the
effort to collect bats from the mine.
The team may also take blood samples from miners and villagers in the
area, to check for antibodies that would indicate they might have been
exposed to Marburg. Experts think that sporadic cases of hemorrhagic
fever in the region are not uncommon, and that cases of Marburg have
probably gone undetected for years.
"We are learning new tricks from each outbreak," said Dr. Pierre Rollin,
a Marburg expert from the CDC, who was on his way to Uganda on Tuesday.
"If we cannot go to the outbreak site immediately after it happens, we
are losing a chance."
Unlike previous Marburg outbreaks, when doctors have been preoccupied
with trying to save peoples' lives, the number of patients in the
current outbreak appears to be limited. In addition to the confirmed
Marburg death, one other "highly probable" case is still alive, and
health authorities are monitoring about 100 contacts of the two men, who
both worked in the mine.
"In the past, the early teams that have gone out have been busy
establishing isolation wards to prevent further infections and following
up case contacts," said Dr. Stuart Nichol, a CDC Marburg expert.
By the time doctors were able to shift from treating patients to
investigating the outbreak, many months had passed. "In this outbreak,
we have a chance to focus on the ecological side soon after the outbreak
to see where the disease may actually come from," Nichol said.
Some 5 million bats, as well other animals and insects, live in and
around the mine at the center of the outbreak.
Bats have long been suspected of playing a role in transmitting Ebola
and Marburg to humans. "There have been anecdotal reports in each
outbreak that bats have been around," Rollin said.
After past Marburg outbreaks, scientists have trapped bats in
surrounding caves and mines, but they have never found the smoking gun
necessary to prove the bats' role in transmission: antibodies against
the virus.
"Diseases like Marburg are very complex and take time to understand,"
Formenty said. "Every outbreak is an opportunity for us to prevent
future infections."