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

Marburg virus disease outbreak in Tanzania has caused worry as symptoms, death rate, and treatment details are out.

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.

Marburg virus disease, caused by a virus from the same family as Ebola, has a fatality rate of up to 88% without treatment.

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

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.

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

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.

So far, nine people have been infected with suspected Marburg, with samples currently in a laboratory for official confirmation. Their symptoms included headaches, high fever, back pain, vomiting blood and, in the most serious cases, bleeding from their orifices.

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.