Medical examinations are underway in Germany on Thursday on two people returning from Rwanda, where one of them fears having contracted the Marburg virus, a deadly disease plaguing this East African country, said Hamburg health authorities.
The two patients were placed in isolation on Wednesday in a department specializing in highly contagious infectious diseases at the University Hospital of Hamburg-Eppendorf, said a press release from the services of the northern German metropolis.
“Rapid diagnosis is now essential. This is currently in progress,” adds the press release.
According to the same source, “one of the two people had worked in a hospital in Rwanda as part of his medical studies”, where patients suffering from the Marburg virus were treated.
Returning from Rwanda on Wednesday, they took a train together from Frankfurt to Hamburg and it was during this trip that one of the people “fearing to have contracted a tropical disease in Rwanda” contacted doctors.
According to German media, he is a medical student in his twenties who showed flu-like symptoms and reportedly felt slightly nauseous.
When they arrived at Hamburg station, health teams were waiting for the two travelers who were immediately isolated and taken to the university hospital.
The contact details of train passengers who may have been in contact with them have been recorded and those of plane passengers are available if necessary. Quarantine measures are not necessary at present, Hamburg authorities add.
An outbreak of the Marburg virus recently appeared in Rwanda where 29 cases have been confirmed since September 27, causing the death of eleven people.
The Marburg virus, with a mortality rate of up to 88%, causes high fever often accompanied by hemorrhages affecting several organs.
It is part of the filovirus family, to which the Ebola virus also belongs, which has already caused several deadly epidemics in Africa.
