What is the difference in symptoms between the Ebola virus and the Marburg virus? Thank you for your help.?

I've recently had to read "The Hot Zone" for school. We are having an exam on it when we return to school. I am still easily confused between the two when the symptons are described to me. I am aware of the difference of where each virus is located, but otherwise, more information would be very helpful.

Great book by the way! It reads like the most exciting fiction novel.

Marburg (sorry for the copy and paste): Symptoms. Sudden onset of fever, chills, and malaise, with extreme prostration and weight loss. The fever typically lasts 7 days. On the fifth day of fever, a maculopapular petechial (tiny--pinpoint or pinhead size papula) rash appears, and hemorrhaging begins. In survivors, the skin will eventually begin to shed or peel.

Other symptoms are headache, myalgia, and inflammation of the eyelid and eye membrane, intestine, and liver. Excessive effusions from internal organs occurs, followed by pulmonary interstitial edema and renal dysfunction. Renal failure is common. Some patients become jaundiced. Within 7 to 10 days, patients who will survive begin to recover.

Recovery can take 5 weeks or more, and is marked by prostration, weight loss, and amnesia for the period of acute illness. Complications during convalescence can include recurrent hepatitis, as well as inflammation of the spinal cord, bone marrow, eyes, testes, and parotid gland.

Patients who are at greatest risk of dying experience diffuse or extensive hemorrhage into the skin, mucous membranes, internal organs, stomach, and intestines. Swelling of the spleen, lymph nodes, kidneys, sometimes pancrease, and especially brain occurs. Patients finally experience coma and convulsions, followed by death. Death from shock usually occurs 6-9 days after clinical onset of symptoms.

Ebola: High fever
Headache
Muscle aches
Stomach pain
Fatigue
Diarrhea
Sore throat
Hiccups
Rash
Red eyes
Vomiting blood
Bloody diarrhea
Chest pain
Shock
Death
Blindness
Bleeding

'Ebola' is both the common term used to describe a group of viruses belonging to genus Ebolavirus, family Filoviridae, and the common name for the disease which they cause, Ebola hemorrhagic fever. The viruses are characterised by a long, filamentous morphology and surrounded by a lipid viral envelope. Ebolaviruses are morphologically similar to the Marburg virus, also in the family Filoviridae, and share similar disease symptoms. It has caused a number of serious and highly publicized outbreaks since its discovery, as well as featuring as the gruesome antagonist in many forms of entertainment.

Ebola is believed to be a zoonotic virus. Despite considerable effort by the World Health Organization no animal reservoir capable of sustaining the virus between outbreaks has been identified. However, it has been hypothesized that the most likely candidate is the fruit bat.

In the absence of knowing where the reservoir lies, the World Health Organization has taken serious steps to ensure that all known Biosafety Level 4 agents (including Ebola) are carefully and properly contained.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is potentially lethal and encompasses a range of symptoms including vomiting, diarrhea, general body pain, internal and external bleeding, and fever. Mortality rates are generally high, ranging from 50% - 90%, with the cause of death usually due to hypovolemic shock or organ failure.

Because Ebola is potentially lethal and since no approved vaccine or treatment is available, Ebola is classified as a biosafety level 4 agent, as well as a Category A bioterrorism agent by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It has the potential to be weaponized for use during biological warfare and was investigated for this particular use by both the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War. Its efficacy as a biological-warfare agent is compromised by its extreme lethality and its quickness: a typical outbreak spreads through a small village or hospital, kills everyone there, and runs out of potential hosts, burning out before it reaches a larger community.




The Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg hemorrhagic fever. Both the disease and virus are related to Ebola and originate in the same part of Africa (Uganda and Eastern Congo). The zoonosis is of unknown origin, but bats are suspected.[1]

In the spring of 2005, the virus attracted widespread press attention for an outbreak in Angola.