Marburg virus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Marburg virus (//MAR-bərgVY-rəs[1]) is a hemorrhagic fever virus of the Filoviridae family of viruses and a member of the species Marburg marburgvirus, genus Marburgvirus. Marburg virus (MARV) causes Marburg virus disease in humans and nonhuman primates, a form of viral hemorrhagic fever.[2] Marburg virus was 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. MARV is a Select Agent,[3]WHO Risk Group 4 Pathogen (requiring biosafety level 4-equivalent containment),[4]NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Category A Priority Pathogen,[5]Centers for Disease Control and PreventionCategory A Bioterrorism Agent,[6] and is listed as a biological agent for export control by the Australia Group.[7]

Use of term[edit]

Marburg virus was first described in 1967.[8] Today, the virus is one of two members of the speciesMarburg marburgvirus, which is included in the genusMarburgvirus, familyFiloviridae, orderMononegavirales. The name Marburg virus is derived from Marburg (the city in Hesse, Germany, where the virus was first discovered) and the taxonomicsuffixvirus.[1]

Note[edit]

According to the rules for taxon naming established by the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses (ICTV), the name Marburg virus is always to be capitalized, but is never italicized, and may be abbreviated (with MARV being the official abbreviation).

Previous designations[edit]

Marburg virus was first introduced under this name in 1967.[8] In 2005, the virus name was changed to Lake Victoria marburgvirus, which unfortunately was the same spelling as its species Lake Victoria marburgvirus.[9][10] However, most scientific articles continued to refer to Marburg virus. Consequently, in 2010, the name Marburg virus was reinstated and the species name changed.[1] A previous abbreviation for the virus was MBGV.

Virus inclusion criteria[edit]

A virus that fulfills the criteria for being a member of the species Marburg marburgvirus is a Marburg virus if its genome diverges from that of the prototype Marburg marburgvirus, Marburg virus variant Musoke (MARV/Mus), by

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marburg_virus