Marburg virus disease is a severe fatal hemorrhagic fever. Marburg, like Ebola, is a filovirus; and both diseases are clinically similar.
Rousettus fruit-bats are considered the natural hosts for Marburg virus. However, African green monkeys imported from Uganda were the source of the first human infection, the WHO points out.
It spreads through human-to-human transmission via direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people.
The disease has an average fatality rate of around 50%. However, it can be low as 24% depending on virus strain and case management.