Surviving an Epidemic More Dangerous than Ebola

50 Years Ago the Deadly Marburg Virus Arrived in Serbia Surviving an Epidemic More Dangerous than Ebola

While the whole world is talking about Ebola and its effects, there are few that remember, 50 years ago, Serbia came close to battling a deadly epidemic called the “Marburg Virus.”

In 90 percent of Marburg Virus cases, the outcome was death. Thankfully, there were not many victims, but the virus did affect two key Belgrade residents, virologist Dr. Živko Stefanović and his wife, Radmila.

On September 2, 1967, Dr. Stefanović woke up with a higher than usual body temperature. He did not realize that this was the beginning of a dreadful time. His colleagues from “Torlak Institute of Virology and Immunology” already knew that several doctors became ill in German cities like Marburg and Frankfurt, and who had the same symptoms as Dr. Stefanović.

Dr. Stefanović and his co-workers had previously been working with Sabaeus monkeys in order to discover vaccines against Poliomyelitis. Just seven days earlier, Dr. Stefanović was completing an autopsy on the fifth monkey who had perished.

“It is possible that, when I took off my gloves, I accidentally scratched the skin with my nails,” admitted Dr. Stefanović.

Two or three days later after the first sign of symptoms he was sent to an Infection Clinic. Eight days later, he was joined by his wife, Radmila.

“I was 13 years old when I was taken to my grandmas. I remember that when my dad came home he looked deathly ill,” explained Živko’s son, Dr. Dejan Stefanović, who is the Chief Operational ward at the First surgical clinic at the Clinical Center of Serbia.

The outcome of...