Deadly virus scare closes tracks at Hamburg rail station

Two passengers suspected of carrying the lethal and highly contagious Marburg virus set off alarm at Hamburg’s main train station on Wednesday afternoon. 

Emergency crews in full protective gear boarded a train from Frankfurt after a 26-year-old medical student and his girlfriend developed flu-like symptoms on the train. Passengers were evacuated and police closed two tracks at the station for several hours before reopening them.

According to the Hamburg Fire Department, one of the two suspected Marburg victims also suffered from mild vomiting. “He then called the fire department because he suspected something was wrong,” a spokesperson told the Die Welt newspaper.

The Bild tabloid reported that the student had arrived by plane directly from Rwanda, where he’d been in contact with a patient who was later diagnosed as infected with Marburg. 

Rwanda, a landlocked country in East Africa, is currently experiencing an outbreak of the deadly virus. According to the country’s health ministry, eight people have died from the virus since last Sunday, while 26 cases have been confirmed.

The Marburg virus causes fever with symptoms including convulsions, bloody vomiting and diarrhea, and has a mortality rate of up to 88 percent, according to the World Health Organization. People become infected through contact with the bodily fluids of infected victims. 

The student and his girlfriend were taken to the Eppendorf University Hospital, which specializes in tropical diseases. Their luggage was impounded.