Calculation of incubation period and serial interval from multiple outbreaks of Marburg virus disease
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Marburg viruses have been responsible for a number of outbreaks throughout sub-Saharan Africa, as well as a number of laboratory infections. Despite many years of experience with the viruses, little is known about several important epidemiologic parameters relating to the development of Marburg virus disease. The analysis uses pooled data from all Marburg cases between 1967 and 2008 to develop estimates for the incubation period and the clinical onset serial interval (COSI). METHODS: Data were obtained from original outbreak investigation forms (n=406) and from published data (n=45). Incubation periods were calculated for person-to-person exposure, for laboratory-acquired infections, and for presumed zoonotic exposures. Similar analysis was conducted for COSI, using only cases with unambiguous person-to-person transmission where both the primary and the secondary case patients had well-defined illness onsets. RESULTS: Seventy-six cases were retained for the incubation period analysis. Incubation periods ranged from a minimum of 2 days in the case of two laboratory workers to a maximum of at least 26 days for a person-to-person household transmission. Thirty-eight cases were retained for COSI analysis. The median COSI was 11 days, with an interquartile range of 8 to 15. CONCLUSIONS: This study extends the maximum known incubation period of Marburg virus disease to 26 days. The analysis was severely hampered by a lack of completeness in epidemiologic data. It is necessary to prioritize obtaining more accurate epidemiologic data in future outbreaks; greater use of COSI may facilitate an improved understanding of outbreak dynamics in Marburg and other diseases.
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- Authors
- Pavlin, B. I.
- Affiliations
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pavlin, Boris I
- ORCID
- Pavlin, Boris I
- Venue
- BMC Research Notes
- Published
- 2014
- Volume
- 7
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 906
- ISSN
- 1756-0500 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC4301984
- OpenAlex
- W2007659124
- Cited by
- 24
- References
- 20
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 2 · 2017: 2 · 2015: 1
- FWCI
- 0.70
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- BMC Research Notes (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- World Health Organization
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Viral Infections and Vectors
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Virology and Viral Diseases
- Keywords
- Marburg virus disease, incubation period, serial interval, human-to-human transmission, laboratory-acquired infection, zoonotic transmission, household transmission, outbreak dynamics
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Disease Outbreaks, Humans, Marburg Virus Disease, Africa South of the Sahara, Infectious Disease Incubation Period
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