Serosurvey on Household Contacts of Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever Patients
Open accessAbstract
The first major outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever (MHF) outside a laboratory environment occurred in the subdistrict of Watsa, Democratic Republic of Congo, from October 1998 to August 2000. We performed a serosurvey of household contacts of MHF patients to identify undetected cases, ascertain the frequency of asymptomatic Marburg infection, and estimate secondary attack risk and postintervention reproduction number. Contacts were interviewed about their exposure and symptoms consistent with MHF. Blood samples were tested for anti-Marburg immunoglobulin G (IgG). One hundred twenty-one (51%) of 237 identified contacts participated; 72 (60%) were not known to the health authorities. Two participating contacts were seropositive and reported becoming ill after the contact; no serologic evidence for asymptomatic or mild Marburg infection was found. The secondary attack risk was 21%; the postintervention reproduction number was 0.9, consistent with an outbreak sustained by repeated primary transmission, rather than large-scale secondary transmission.
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Borchert et al. provided the only estimate of attack rate, at 21%.
“This study also provided the only estimate of attack rate, at 21% (Figure 3).”
From Marburg virus disease outbreaks, mathematical models, and disease parameters: a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
The Results section (“Secondary Attack Risk and Postintervention Rp”) estimates a 21% secondary attack risk for household contacts. The paper does not establish that this was the only attack-rate estimate across studies; it also reports a 19% tertiary attack risk. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredBorchert et al. estimated the effective reproduction number Re based on secondary attack rates derived from seroprevalence in contacts of confirmed cases in DRC in 2002.
“Borchert et al. estimated the effective reproduction number, Re, based on secondary attack rates derived from seroprevalence in contacts of confirmed cases in DRC in 2002 (25).”
From Marburg virus disease outbreaks, mathematical models, and disease parameters: a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
The Methods (Data Analysis) and Results (Secondary Attack Risk and Postintervention Rp) show that Borchert et al. estimated a postintervention reproduction number from household secondary attack risk. But the risk was calculated from secondary cases and healthy contacts, not directly from the reported seroprevalence; the main calculation was not restricted to contacts of confirmed primary cases. The paper identifies 2002 as the survey year, while the outbreak ended in 2000. (LLM, conf=0.84)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredBorchert et al. estimated an effective reproduction number, Re, of 0.93 for the 1998 DRC outbreak after the introduction of public health and social measures.
“Borchert et al. (25) estimated an effective reproduction number, Re, of 0.93 for the 1998 DRC outbreak after the introduction of public health and social measures (PHSM)”
From Marburg virus disease outbreaks, mathematical models, and disease parameters: a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
The Results (‘Secondary Attack Risk and Postintervention Rp’) estimate 0.93, and the Methods say this is a postintervention reproduction number because most surveyed cases occurred after control measures began. The estimate is specifically for household contacts, not an outbreak-wide effective reproduction number as the citing sentence implies. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredReproduction number estimates were reported in two studies.
“Reproduction number estimates were reported in two studies (24,25).”
From Marburg virus disease outbreaks, mathematical models, and disease parameters: a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
Twenty-one studies contained seroprevalence estimates across a 38-year period from 1980-2018 in 15 predominantly Sub-Saharan African countries.
“Twenty-one studies contained seroprevalence estimates across a 38-year period from 1980 - 2018 in 15 predominantly Sub-Saharan African countries (25,26,31,35–52) (Table 2).”
From Marburg virus disease outbreaks, mathematical models, and disease parameters: a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [25]
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Cites
Short communication: a cluster of Marburg virus disease involving an infant
Borchert, M., Muyembe‐Tamfum, J. J., Colebunders, R., Libande, M., Sabue, M., & Van der Stuyft, P. (2002) · Tropical Medicine & International Health · doi:10.1046/j.1365-3156.2002.00945.x · Cited by 44 · see citing works
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Research works printed but not linked: 8
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Nyakarahuka, L., Kankya, C., Krontveit, R., Mayer, B., Mwiine, F. N., Lutwama, J., & Skjerve, E. (2016) · BMC Infectious Diseases · doi:10.1186/s12879-016-2045-6 · Cited by 74 · see citing works
Marburg virus disease outbreaks, mathematical models, and disease parameters: a systematic review
Cuomo-Dannenburg, G., McCain, K., McCabe, R., Unwin, H. J. T., Doohan, P., Nash, R. K., Hicks, J. T., Charniga, K., Geismar, C., Lambert, B., et al. (2024) · The Lancet Infectious Diseases · doi:10.1016/s1473-3099(23)00515-7 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
“Twenty-one studies contained seroprevalence estimates across a 38-year period from 1980 - 2018 in 15 predominantely Sub-Saharan African countries[31, 41, 44, 45, 46, 47, 27, 21, 48, 32, 33, 22, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 43] (Table 4).”
InfluentialBorchert, M., Mulangu, S., Lefèvre, P., Tshomba, A., Libande, M. L., Kulidri, A., Muyembe‐Tamfum, J., & Van der Stuyft, P. (2007) · The Journal of Infectious Diseases · doi:10.1086/520540 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Borchert, M., Mulangu, S., Swanepoel, R., Libande, M. L., Tshomba, A., Kulidri, A., Muyembe-Tamfum, J.-J., & Van der Stuyft, P.
- Affiliations
- Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde (BE)
- National Institute of Biomedical Research (CD)
- National Institute for Communicable Diseases (ZA)
- Ministry of Public Health (CD)
- Hôpital Général de Kilo-Moto, Watsa, Democratic Republic of Congo
- Institut de Recherche Biomédicale, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo;
- Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium;
- Corresponding author
- Borchert, Matthias
- Venue
- Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Published
- 2006-03
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 433-439
- ISSN
- 1080-6040 (ISSN-L)
- 1080-6059
- PMC
- PMC3291433
- OpenAlex
- W2134452336
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 5 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 2 · 2020: 1 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 2 · 2012: 3
- FWCI
- 1.45
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- diamond
- doi.org
- Licence
- cc-by
- Locations
- Emerging infectious diseases (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- LSHTM Research Online (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine) (acceptedVersion)
- Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) (submittedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
- Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde
- Vlaamse regering
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Viral Infections and Vectors
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Infectious Diseases › Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Epidemiology › Virology and Viral Diseases
- Keywords
- Marburg hemorrhagic fever, household contacts, serological survey, secondary attack rate, reproduction number, asymptomatic infection, undetected cases, Marburg virus, contact tracing
- MeSH terms
- Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Child, Child, Preschool, Disease Outbreaks, Female, Humans, Male, Marburg Virus Disease, Middle Aged, Risk Factors, Seroepidemiologic Studies, Contact Tracing
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