Ebola virus and Marburg virus

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Treatments and drugs

By Mayo Clinic staff

No antiviral medications have proved effective in treating Ebola virus or Marburg virus infection. As a result, treatment consists of supportive hospital care. This includes providing fluids, maintaining adequate blood pressure, replacing blood loss and treating any other infections that develop. Some people receive transfusions of plasma to replenish blood proteins that improve clotting.

Public health officials urge hospitals to keep people with Ebola or Marburg hemorrhagic fever isolated from others in negative-pressure rooms, which maintain the flow of air into, rather than out of, enclosed spaces. Health care workers should follow strict infection-control precautions.

References
  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Ebola hemorrhagic fever. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/ebola/en. Accessed March 29, 2009.
  6. Marburg hemorrhagic fever. World Health Organization. http://www.who.int/csr/disease/marburg/en. Accessed March 29, 2009.
  7. 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.
  8. Ebola/Marburg vaccine development. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/topics/ebolaMarburg. Accessed April 9, 2009.
  9. Peters CJ. Marburg and Ebola - Arming ourselves against the deadly filoviruses. New England Journal of Medicine. 2005;352:2571.
  10. 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.

DS00996

June 20, 2009

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