EARLY DETECTION OF ANTIGEN AND ESTIMATION OF VIRUS YIELD IN SPECIMENS FROM PATIENTS WITH MARBURG VIRUS-DISEASE

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  • 1 January 1978
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 56  (4) , 633-+
Abstract
Autopsy specimens from patients with Marburg disease having at least 104.5 TCID50 [median tissue culture infective dose] of virus/g of tissue contained sufficient fluorescent antigen-positive cells to make a specific diagnosis possible in less than 3 h. Liver, heart, spleen and kidney tissues contained significant amounts of virus. Tissue suspensions and blood or serum samples inoculated into Vero [African green monkey kidney] cell cultures produced virus-specific immunofluorescence within 2-5 days. At least 1 specimen of all virus-positive persons yielded Marburg virus-specific antigen on day 2 or 3 after inoculation. Tissues with at least 105.5 TCID50 virus/g had Marburg antigen of sufficient titer to be used in complement fixation tests.