Side-by-side comparison
| Hantavirus | Marburg | |
|---|---|---|
| Family | Filoviridae | Hantaviridae |
| Reservoir | Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) | Wild rodents |
| Person-to-person | Yes — body fluids | Almost never |
| Geography | Equatorial Africa | Asia, Europe, Americas |
| CFR | 24–88% by outbreak | 0.4–36% by species |
| Vaccine | Investigational (Sabin V920) | China/Korea HFRS only |
Both call for caution — for very different reasons
Marburg outbreaks demand strict isolation and contact-tracing, sometimes producing nosocomial chains. Hantavirus outbreaks rarely require contact-tracing because the virus does not spread between humans (Andes excepted). Both diseases carry high case-fatality, which is why both produce media attention disproportionate to their case counts.