Marburg hemorrhagic fever laboratory findings

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1] Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Aravind Reddy Kothagadi M.B.B.S[2]

Marburg virus infection may be confirmed by the laboratory techniques such as antibody-capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, antigen-capture detection tests, serum neutralization test, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), antigen detection tests and virus isolation by cell culture.

• It may be a challenge to clinically distinguish marburg virus disease (MVD) from other infectious diseases such as malaria, typhoid fever, shigellosis, meningitis and other viral haemorrhagic fevers. Marburg virus infection may be confirmed using the following diagnostic methods:

• Tests on clinical samples present an extreme biohazard risk and are conducted only under maximum biological containment conditions. In deceased patients, immunohistochemistry, virus isolation, or PCR of blood or tissue specimens may be used to diagnose Marburg HF retrospectively.