Tanzania has confirmed a case of the Marburg virus, a highly contagious and often fatal disease, after initially denying a suspected outbreak. This is the second Marburg outbreak in the Kagera region this year.
ARUSHA, Tanzania (AP) — Tanzania’s president confirmed on Monday that one sample from a remote area in northern Tanzania tested positive for Marburg disease, a highly contagious virus that can be fatal in up to 88% of cases without treatment. President Samia Suluhu Hassan made the announcement in Dodoma, the capital, alongside World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
The WHO initially reported on January 14th a suspected outbreak of Marburg that had claimed the lives of eight people in Tanzania’s Kagera region. However, Tanzanian health officials refuted the report just hours later, stating that tests conducted on samples had yielded negative results.Like Ebola, the Marburg virus is believed to originate in fruit bats and spreads among humans through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or contaminated surfaces, such as bedsheets. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, diarrhea, vomiting, and in some cases, death resulting from severe blood loss. Currently, there are no approved vaccines or treatments for Marburg. This marks the second outbreak of Marburg in Kagera during 2023. It follows closely on the heels of Rwanda, which shares a border with Kagera, declaring its own outbreak of the disease over exactly a month ago. Rwandan officials reported a total of 15 deaths and 66 cases in the outbreak, which was first identified on September 27th. The majority of those affected were healthcare workers who treated the initial patients
MARBURG VIRUS TANZANIA OUTBREAK WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION DISEASE
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