ABSTRACT
Marburgviruses (Marburg virus (MARV) and Ravn virus (RAVV)) cause a severe viral hemorrhagic fever, Marburg virus disease (MVD), in humans and are the founding members of the family Filoviridae. With an overall case fatality rate in humans of ≈82%, marburgviruses are more lethal than their more infamous cousins, the ebolaviruses (≈68%) (Kuhn et al., 2011b). Although they are endemic in Africa, cases of marburgvirus infections have been exported to Europe on several occasions and possibly to the United States by infected humans who traveled through Africa or nonhuman primates (NHPs) that were caught and exported from there (Kuhn, 2008). Marburgviruses are therefore a global threat.
