Last week, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that eight people had allegedly died from Marburg fever in Tanzania. Later, the Tanzanian Health Ministry denied reports of a Marburg virus outbreak in the country.
Laboratory tests conducted in the Kagera region confirmed that one individual had a Marburg virus infection, the president said on Monday, adding that other patients tested negative for the disease.
This confirmed case marks the second outbreak of Marburg disease in Tanzania, Samia Suluhu Hassan said at a press conference with Ghebreyesus. She noted that the country’s government had taken a number of emergency response measures following reports about several people believed to have died from Marburg fever.
In December 2024, the Rwandan Health Ministry said that the Marburg virus outbreak in the country had ended. Since mid-September 2024, when the outbreak began, 66 cases of the disease had been reported, of which 15 had resulted in deaths.
The virus causes severe viral hemorrhagic fever in humans and is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads through direct contact with infected biological fluids. The disease begins acutely, with high fever, severe headache and malaise. There are no vaccines or antiviral medications authorized for its treatment, according to WHO.