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