The case was first identified in Guinea at the end of July, less than two months after the WHO officially declared the end of the ebola epidemic in the country.

A patient who succumbed to the Marburg virus first sought medical attention at a local clinic with worsening symptoms: fever, headache, fatigue, abdominal pain and bleeding gums, the WHO said in a statement. Analysts from Guinea laboratories and later the Pasteur Institute in Senegal confirmed that it was the virus.

Thepotential for the Marburg virus tospread quickly and far means that we must stop it immediately, says Matshidiso Moeti, WHO regional director for Africa.We are working with health authorities to establish a rapid response that builds on Guinea's previous experience in managing the Ebola virus, which is transmitted in a similar way, she added.

Dangerous disease

According to the WHO, the incubation period of the virus is 2-21 days and its mortality rate ranges from 24 to 88 per cent, depending on the strain of the virus and how the infection is handled. Marburg is transmitted to humans via body fluids (blood, saliva) through direct contact or contamination of surfaces with these fluids. Symptoms of the disease include headache and muscle pain, bleeding from various body orifices and bloody vomiting.

The virus was first identified in 1967 during two epidemics that occurred simultaneously in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. The outbreaks were linked to laboratory work on green catbirds imported from Uganda.

Since then, the disease has appeared in the USA, Angola, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa and Uganda. In 2008, there were two cases among people who visited bat-inhabited caves in Uganda. In 2018, researchers found live bats infected with the virus in Sierra Leone, but no human cases have been confirmed. Now, for the first time, the disease has reached West Africa.

The reservoirs of the virus are red-footed bats of the Rousettini tribe.