Death toll from Tanzania Marburg outbreak rises to nine

An outbreak of the Marburg virus has killed nine people in Tanzania, Africa’s health agency said Thursday, up from eight suspected deaths reported by the World Health Organization last week.

The east African nation on Monday confirmed the second outbreak of the deadly virus in its history, following a 2023 outbreak that killed six people, but has not commented on any recent fatality figures.

In a weekly briefing, the African Union’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said “there have been 10 cases that have been notified, of which nine have already died”.

Ngashi Ngongo, Africa CDC’s chief of staff and head of the executive office, told an online briefing that the figures reflected “the very high case fatality of Marburg”.

“We are doing everything we can with WHO and all the partners.”

He said that teams — including members who had already countered a recent outbreak in neighbouring Rwanda — were already “on the ground”.

From the 10 cases “about 281 contacts have been listed and are being followed”, he said, praising the tracking of the virus so far.

READ ALSO: Eight dead in suspected Marburg outbreak in Tanzania: WHO

“There have been a total of 31 tests that have been conducted, two confirmed, and 29 I think, that are negative,” he said.

In response to a query on differences between the numbers that have been reported, Ngongo said: “We trust the results.”

Ngongo added that the Tanzania’s government had submitted a $10.8 million response plan, with the health agency waiting for the administration to have “finalised and also requested the support that they need from Africa CDC”.

It comes a month after WHO declared the end of a three-month Marburg outbreak in neighbouring Rwanda which killed 15 people.

The virus causes a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever.

It is transmitted from fruit bats and belongs to the same family of viruses as Ebola.

With a fatality rate that can reach close to 90 percent, Marburg’s fever is often accompanied by bleeding and organ failure.