The first US case of Marburg hemorrhagic fever has been confirmed in Colorado. The patient got the rare illness while traveling in Uganda, but he has recovered since then. The disease is caused by a virus indigenous to Africa and it spreads through contact with infected animals of bodily fluids of infected humans.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC),  there have been no previous cases reported in the US. The patient traveled to Uganda, visited a python cave in Maramagambo Forest in Queen Elizabeth park and encountered fruit bats, which can carry the Marburg virus. After a tourist from the Netherlands died from Marburg in July, the Ugandan government closed the cave.

The patient was treated at the Lutheran Medical Center in January 2008 and he recovered, but his or her identity wasn’t disclosed. Specialized tests of the initial sample taken in January 2008 confirmed the illness in the Colorado patient in December, but the CDC said this is a difficult procedure, and that’s because it often depends on the quality of the sample being tested and the timing, as samples taken early in the patient’s illness makes identification easier.

However, the fact that this is the first case of Marburg fever in the US is not awkward at all, as the hemorrhagic fever is extremely rare. Since the first case was recognized, in 1967, fewer than 500 people were infected, but more than 80 percent of the cases were fatal. The virus has an incubation period of 5 to 10 days, and the symptoms include fever, chills and headaches, but they worsen significantly after the fifth day of illness.