Nine cases of the deadly disease have been reported in the Kagera region of Tanzania so far. But officials expect that number to rise.

Tanzania has pushed back against a report from the World Health Organization warning of a new Marburg virus outbreak in the country.

Tanzania’s Health Minister, Jenista Mhagama, said after samples of suspected cases were tested, they were found to be negative for the Ebola-like virus.

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

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

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.

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.

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,

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.