Marburgvirus (/ËmÉrbÉrÉ¡ ËvaɪrÉs/ MAR-bÉrg VY-rÉs) is a hemorrhagic fever virus of the Filoviridae family of viruses, first noticed and described during small epidemics in the German cities Marburg and Frankfurt and the Yugoslav capital Belgrade in the 1960s. Workers were accidentally exposed to tissues of infected grivets (Chlorocebus aethiops) at the city’s former main industrial plant, the Behringwerke, then part of Hoechst, and today of CSL Behring. During these outbreaks, 31 people became infected and seven of them died. Marburg virus (MARV) causes severe disease in humans and nonhuman primates in the form of viral hemorrhagic fever. MARV is a Select Agent, WHO Risk Group 4 Pathogen (requiring biosafety level 4-equivalent containment), NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Category A Priority Pathogen, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Category A Bioterrorism Agent, and is listed as a biological agent for export control by the Australia Group.
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