A suspected outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) in Tanzania has killed eight people and poses a high risk to the country and its neighbours, global health leaders have said.
The World Health Organization (WHO) said nine suspected cases of the Ebola-like virus had been reported as of 11 January, in two districts of the Kagera region in the north of the country, including the eight deaths.
While the global risk from the outbreak is considered low, officials said the risk in Tanzania and the region was considered high.
Patients’ symptoms included headaches, high fevers, back pain, diarrhoea, vomiting with blood and weakness, followed by bleeding from orifices at a later stage of the disease.
In a statement, the WHO said: “The reporting of suspected MVD cases from two districts suggests geographic spread. The delayed detection and isolation of cases, coupled with ongoing contact tracing, indicates lack of full information of the current outbreak. More cases are expected to be identified.”
It also emphasised the high death rate of 89%, and the fact that healthcare workers are among suspected cases, potentially indicating spread within health facilities.
Kagera borders Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda, with significant cross-border movement of people, and the WHO said there was “the potential for spread into neighbouring countries”.
While MVD is not easily transmissible, typically requiring contact with the body fluids of a sick person or surfaces contaminated with those fluids, the WHO said: “It cannot be excluded that a person exposed to the virus may be travelling.”
The source of the outbreak is unknown and investigations, including contact tracing and further laboratory tests, are ongoing.
Outbreaks typically begin via human contact with fruit bats, which act as an animal reservoir for the virus.
The announcement comes weeks after an MVD outbreak in neighbouring Rwanda was declared over. In that outbreak, traced back to fruit bats in a mining cave, there were 66 confirmed cases and 15 deaths.
Tanzania had an earlier Marburg outbreak in 2023, also in Kagera, involving nine cases and six deaths.
Marburg virus outbreaks typically have a fatality rate of between 24% and 88%. They are declared over, 42 days after the last patient has tested negative for the virus twice.
