The mode of controlling the infection was found. Until that time, the devastating effects of this infection in the Caribbean region had bee responsible, for many deaths and for the France's failure of digging the Panama canal. The virus is a RNA particle that replicates in the cytoplasm of infected cells. The disease may be asymptomatic, mild and severe fatal. It affects liver together with heart, kidneys and spleen causing jaundice hemorrhages and marked albuminuria.
Diagnosis is made by virus isolation and serology.
It is safe for adults but should not be used in children under 6 months because it may cause encephalitis. There is marked hepatocyte damage in the liver consisting in eosinophilic necrosis of individual cells but jaundice is rare. It is carried by the african green monkey which is used for biomedical experiments. The first infection occurred in 1967 among laboratory personnel in Marburg, Germany and in Yugoslavia with 7 deaths. Fever, rash, diarrhea, hemorrhages are the clinical manifestations in man.