Tanzania has dismissed a World Health Organisation (WHO) report of a suspected new outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in the north-west of the country. On Tuesday, the global health agency said a total of nine suspected cases were reported over the last five days in the Kagera region, including eight deaths.

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

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

NAIROBI (Reuters) - 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.

The WHO reported nine suspected cases of Marburg virus, resulting in eight deaths across two districts in Tanzania. It suspects that the virus could spread farther as the outbreak region borders Uganda,

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.

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.