A suspected outbreak of the Marburg virus in Tanzania has killed at least eight people, the World Health Organization (WHO) says.
In a statement on Tuesday, the global health agency said a total of nine suspected cases of the high-fatality disease had been reported in two districts of the Kagera region in the country’s northwest.
“We would expect further cases in coming days as disease surveillance improves,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.
Samples from two patients have been collected and tested for confirmation of the outbreak at Tanzania’s national laboratory, the United Nations body said. The patients’ contacts, including healthcare workers, have been identified and are being followed up.
The WHO warned that the risk of further spread in Tanzania and the region was “high” due to Kagera’s location as a transit hub, with significant cross-border movement towards neighboring Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The global risk was currently assessed as “low”, it added.
The announcement came weeks after a Marburg outbreak was declared over in Rwanda after infecting at least 66 people and killing 15.
The viral hemorrhagic fever has a fatality rate as high as 88 percent and is from the same virus family as the one responsible for Ebola, which is transmitted to people from fruit bats.
The virus can spread between people through direct contact or via blood and other bodily fluids of infected people, including contaminated bedding or clothing.
There are currently no approved vaccines or treatments for the virus.
