Police have swarmed a railway station in Germany after passengers showed symptoms of a lethal virus, for which there is no vaccine.
Chaos erupted as officers cordoned off tracks 7 and 8 at Hamburg Central Station for several hours this afternoon, sending commuters scrambling for safety.
Emergency personnel in full protective suits boarded the ICE high-speed train that had arrived from Frankfurt.
What sparked the evacuation of the train were two travellers on board, who were exhibiting symptoms of the Marburg virus, which is in the same family as Ebola.
The man is said to be a German medical student, aged 26. He and his girlfriend boarded the train to Hamburg on Wednesday afternoon in Frankfurt.
During the ride, both developed flu-like symptoms.
Marburg virus starts like a harmless flu, with a fever, headache and muscle pains.
Within days, those infected suffer from excessive bleeding, a rash, extreme lethargy and blood-stained vomit and diarrhoea.
It kills about half of those it infects, according to data by the World Health Organisation (WHO). In one outbreak, 88% of those infected died.
The virus spreads to humans from fruit bats and then through contact with bodily fluids of infected individuals.
There are no specific treatments or a vaccine, but a range of blood products, drug and immune therapies are being developed, according to WHO.
It is understood that the student had previously arrived by plane from Rwanda, where six people have died from an outbreak of Marburg and another 20 are infected.
There he had contact with a patient who the doctors later diagnosed as being infected with the virus, which has a fatality rate of up to 88%.
It remains unclear whether the pair have indeed been infected with the Marburg virus, fire department spokesperson Christian Wolte said.
Both the student and his girlfriend were transported to the University Hospital Eppendorf (UKE) in a specialised infectious disease ambulance operated by the Hamburg Fire Department, Bild reported.
According to the website, there were around 200 passengers on board the train with the two passengers.
‘We now have to find out whether they could have become infected in such a short space of time,’ said Hamburg’s fire department spokesperson.
The operation was terminated at around 5pm, and the station finally reopened.
Days after Rwanda announced an outbreak of the Marburg virus, authorities have introduced a set of measures on gatherings to control the spread.
As of now, the majority of victims have been health workers in the intensive care unit.
The country’s health minister Sabin Nsanzimana said last week: ‘We are counting 20 people who are infected, and six who have already passed away due to this virus.
‘The large majority of cases and deaths are among healthcare workers, mainly in the intensive care unit.’
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