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Prevention
By Mayo Clinic staffPrevention efforts focus on avoiding contact with the viruses. The following precautions can help prevent infection and spread of Ebola and Marburg.
- Avoid traveling to areas of known outbreaks. Before traveling to Africa, find out about any current epidemics by checking the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Web site. To date, human cases of Ebola and Marburg have been reported in Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Uganda, Sudan, Gabon, Cote d'Ivoire, Liberia and Kenya.
- Wash your hands frequently. As with other infectious diseases, one of the most important preventive measures for Ebola virus and Marburg virus is frequent hand washing. Use soap and water or use alcohol-based hand rubs containing at least 60 percent alcohol when soap and water aren't available.
- Avoid bush meat. In developing countries, wild animals, including nonhuman primates, are sold in local markets. Avoid buying or eating any of these animals.
- Avoid close physical contact with anyone infected with Ebola or Marburg. In particular, caregivers should avoid contact with the person's body fluids and tissues, including blood, semen, vaginal secretions and saliva. People with Ebola or Marburg are most contagious in the later stages of the disease. No one has been known to contract the disease from a person who is infected but hasn't yet developed symptoms.
- Follow strict infection-control procedures if you're a health care worker. This includes wearing protective clothing, such as gloves, masks, gowns and eye shields; keeping infected people isolated from other patients; and carefully disinfecting and disposing of needles and other instruments. Injection needles and syringes should not be reused.
- Don't handle the remains of anyone suspected of dying of Ebola or Marburg hemorrhagic fever. Specially organized and trained teams should bury the remains, using appropriate safety equipment.
Vaccine development
Although no vaccines are available to prevent Ebola or Marburg diseases, several are under study.
Advice for travelers
Most international travelers don't need to worry about exposure to Ebola virus or Marburg virus. But if you're planning to travel to areas where outbreaks have occurred, stay up to date on health advisories and epidemic information. Advisories for travelers about current disease outbreaks are posted on the Web sites of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization.
- Ebola hemorrhagic fever fact sheet. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/dispages/Fact_Sheets/Ebola_Fact_Booklet.pdf. Accessed March 29, 2009.
- Questions and answers about Ebola hemorrhagic fever. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/Spb/mnpages/dispages/ebola/qa.htm. Accessed March 29, 2009.
- Questions and answers about Marburg hemorrhagic fever. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/mnpages/dispages/marburg/qa.htm. Accessed March 29, 2009.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Notice to readers update: Management of patients with suspected viral hemorrhagic fever - United States. MMWR. 1995;44:475. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00038033.htm. Accessed March 29, 2009.
- Ebola hemorrhagic fever. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en. Accessed March 29, 2009.
- Marburg hemorrhagic fever. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/marburg/en. Accessed March 29, 2009.
- Marburg hemorrhagic fever, imported case - United States. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/spb/outbreaks/index.htm. March 29, 2009.
- Ebola/Marburg vaccine development. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/ebolaMarburg. Accessed April 9, 2009.
- Peters CJ. Marburg and Ebola - Arming ourselves against the deadly filoviruses. New England Journal of Medicine. 2005;352:2571.
- Towner JS, et al. Marburg virus infection detected in a common African bat. PLoS (Public Library of Science) One. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.000076Accessed April 11, 2009.
