Listen here on your chosen podcast platform.
Hamburg station was partially closed on Wednesday over fears two passengers who had just travelled from Rwanda may have been carrying the highly contagious Marburg virus.
The passengers - believed to be a 26-year-old medical student and his girlfriend - developed flu-like symptoms as they travelled on a train from Frankfurt to Hamburg on Wednesday afternoon.
The medical student had recently worked at a hospital in Rwanda where people infected with the deadly Marburg virus were being treated, and had come into contact with an infected patient, German news outlet Die Welt reported.
As well as their flu-like symptoms, Hamburg Fire Department said one member of the couple reported mild vomiting, and on arriving at Hamburg Central Station they sounded the alarm.
Passengers were reportedly evacuated, while police are said to have closed part of the station for several hours.
Die Welt reported on Thursday that tests carried out on the two passengers had come back negative for Marburg virus.
The couple had reportedly flown from Rwanda to Frankfurt, before taking a train to Hamburg.
Citing authorities, Die Welt said the medical student was expected to remain in isolation at a Hamburg medical facility for the next few days. The person he was travelling with would also reportedly be monitored there over the weekend.
The medical student would then reportedly be transferred home for supervised isolation. Die Welt said he would be monitored for up to 21 days, until the end of the virus’ incubation.
A viral hemorrhagic fever, Marburg symptoms include high fever, severe headaches and malaise which typically develop within seven days of infection, according to the WHO.
With a fatality rate as high as 88 per cent, it belongs to the same virus family as that responsible for Ebola, and is transmitted to humans by fruit bats before spreading through contact with the bodily fluids of those infected.
The disease is named after the central German town of Marburg, where the virus was first described in 1967, after laboratory workers were inadvertently exposed to it via infected monkeys.
Marburg virus was confirmed in Rwanda in late September and has killed 11 people to date, with 36 cases reported, health ministry data shows.
The ministry is monitoring 410 people who have been in contact with those infected, assistant health minister Yvan Butera said earlier. Five other people tested negative but were awaiting the results of further tests.
The country is poised to begin vaccine and therapeutic clinical trials to treat the viral disease, health minister Sabin Nzanzimanaaid on Thursday.
"This is part of our efforts to help people recover quickly by utilising vaccines and medicines specifically developed to fight this outbreak, currently in the final phase of research," the minister, Sabin Nsanzimana, told Reuters.
"We are collaborating with the pharmaceutical companies that developed these, alongside the World Health Organization to expedite the process through multilateral collaboration."
Neighbouring Tanzania had cases of Marburg in 2023, as did Uganda in 2017.
