Tanzania’s president said Monday that one sample from a remote part of northern Tanzania tested positive for Marburg disease, a highly infectious virus which can be fatal in up to 88% of cases without treatment.

Tanzania’s president says one sample from a remote northern part of the country has tested positive for Marburg disease.

Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday confirmed the country s second outbreak of Marburg virus disease (MVD) in two

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.

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.

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.

Tanzania’s Ministry of Health has deployed a team of experts to the Kagera region to collect specimens and conduct laboratory tests following reports of a suspected outbreak of Marburg virus

Tanzania's president has announced an outbreak of Marburg virus, an Ebola-like virus, just a week after her health minister denied that there were any cases in the country. President Samia Suluhu Hassan said at a press conference on Monday that health authorities had confirmed one case of Marburg in the north-western region of Kagera.

Officials previously questioned whether the deadly disease was indeed present in the African country, which had seen 8 suspected Marburg deaths.