Open AccessEbola and Marburg Viruses
Author(s) -
Eri Nakayama,
Ayato Takada
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
journal of disaster research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.332
H-Index - 18
eISSN - 1883-8030
pISSN - 1881-2473
DOI - 10.20965/jdr.2011.p0381
Subject(s) - marburg virus , ebola virus , outbreak , virology , filoviridae , biosafety , ebola hemorrhagic fever , ebolavirus , viral hemorrhagic fever , epidemiology , medicine , biology , virus , viral disease , pathology , paramyxoviridae
Ebola and Marburg viruses, members of the filovirus family, cause severe hemorrhagic fever in human and nonhuman primates and are classified as biosafety level 4 agents. No effective filovirus-specific prophylaxis or treatment is yet commercially available. Filovirus species vary genetically, with one in the Marburg virus group and five in the Ebola virus group. Epidemiological efforts to prevent outbreaks lie mainly in identifying natural animal reservoirs. Increasingly frequent outbreaks in Africa and concerns about bioterrorism and imported cases in nonendemic areas point to the importance of public health in two ways – finding strategies to control disease outbreak and developing effective vaccines and drugs.