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In the book, Peter (not his real name) died of Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever.

His real surname may likely be Ravn, a common Danish surname listed as the 73rd most common. The book identifies him as a 10yr old young Dane. This conflicts with the info on the WHO site which lists all the Filovirus outbreaks and lists him as aged 15. The virus causing his death is listed there as Ravn(1987). This information was not avaliable when Preston wrote the book. This name follows one of the standard methods of naming new viruses - the name of the 1st victim and the year they died.

The various Filovirus species (Marburg, Ebola and the recently discovered Cuevavirus) undergoes frequent name changes as more information comes to light. For example the names of the Ebola family have changed some half dozen times since their discovery. Eg The last of the 5 Ebola species identified so far was first called Cote d'Ivorie Virus, then it was changed to Ivorycoast Virus. It is now known as Tai Forest Virus, after the place on the Ivory Coast where it was first discovered.

Currently the Filoviruses consist of the following three families comprising a total of 8 species

Marburgvirus:- Marburg Virus Ravn Virus

Ebolavirus:- Ebola Zaire Ebola Sudan Ebola bundibugyo Tai Forest Virus

Ebola Reston

Cuevavirus:- Loviu Virus

All except Reston cause seriously fatal hemorrahgic fevers with fatality rates from 20% to over 90%. Reston Kills >90% of infected monkeys, but does not produce any human illness.

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13y ago

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