Filoviral haemorrhagic fevers

Abstract

Sensationalised accounts of wards of dying patients have fueled intense public fascination with filoviruses and highlighted the global threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Filoviruses are the prototypical emerging pathogens: they cause a haemorrhagic disease of high case-fatality associated with explosive outbreaks due to person-to-person transmission, have no known treatment, occur unpredictably, and have an unknown reservoir. In truth, since their initial discovery in 1967, only a handful of filoviral outbreaks have occurred, mostly in remote locations. However, the documented occurrence of secondary cases in locations far from endemic areas validates the concern that filoviruses have the potential to cause unprecedented outbreaks in the future.