Nine cases of the deadly disease have been reported in the Kagera region of Tanzania so far. But officials expect that number to rise.

The source of the outbreak is still unknown and additional cases are expected, health officials said. View on euronews

Tanzania has pushed back against a report from the World Health Organization warning of a new Marburg virus outbreak in the country.

Tanzanian authorities deny Marburg virus presence after WHO reports deaths, with laboratory tests returning negative.

Tanzania's government said no-one in the country had tested positive for the Marburg virus after the World Health Organization (WHO) said at least eight people in the northwest were believed to have died from it.

Photo/VCG] The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that there are no confirmed cases of Marburg virus in Tanzania, despite reports on Tuesday by th

Marburg virus is a close cousin of Ebola, causing similar symptoms and spreading in the same way. It can cause death in up to 88% of infected people.

The World Health Organization says an outbreak of suspected Marburg disease has killed eight people in a remote part of northern Tanzania.

In March 2023, Tanzania reported its first Marburg virus outbreak, which also occurred in Kagera region. The outbreak was declared over in June 2023, with nine infections reported, six of them fatal. The WHO said zoonotic reservoirs of the virus, such as fruit bats, remain in the area.

A suspected outbreak of the Marburg virus in northwest Tanzania has infected nine people, killing eight of them, the World Health Organization has said, weeks after an outbreak of the disease was declared over in neighbouring Rwanda.

With the fatality rate of 8% it is the same virus family as Ebola. The main carrier is from fruit bats which spreads to humans then through the contact of bodily fluids of infected individuals, it spreads to others.