Early detection of antigen and estimation of virus yield in specimens from patients with Marburg virus disease.

Autopsy specimens from patients with Marburg disease having at least 10(4.5) TCID(50) of virus per gram of tissue were found to contain sufficient fluorescent antigen-positive cells to make a specific diagnosis possible in less than 3 h. Liver, heart, spleen, and kidney tissues were found to contain significant amounts of virus. Tissue suspensions, as well as blood or serum samples, inoculated into Vero cell cultures produced virus-specific immunofluorescence within 2-5 days. At least one specimen of all virus-positive persons yielded Marburg virus-specific antigen on day 2 or 3 after inoculation. Furthermore, tissues with at least 10(5.5) TCID(50) of virus/g had Marburg antigen of sufficient titre to be used in complement fixation tests.