title: Serosurvey on household contacts of Marburg hemorrhagic fever patients.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium. matthias.borchert@lshtm.ac.uk
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Borchert
authors.forename: Sabue
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mulangu
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Swanepoel
authors.forename: Modeste Lifenya
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Libande
authors.forename: Antoine
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tshomba
authors.forename: Amayo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kulidri
authors.forename: Jean-Jacques
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Muyembe-Tamfum
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Van der Stuyft
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016358:Contact Tracing; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008379:Marburg Virus Disease / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012307:Risk Factors; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies