NAIROBI: 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 neighboring Rwanda.
\nThe viral hemorrhagic fever has a fatality rate as high as 88 percent, and is from the same virus family as the one responsible for Ebola, which is transmitted to people from fruit bats which are endemic to that part of East Africa.
\nThe WHO said it received reliable reports of suspected cases in the Kagera region of Tanzania on Jan. 10, with symptoms of headache, high fever, back pain, diarrhea, vomiting blood, muscle weakness and finally external bleeding.
\nSamples from two patients were awaiting testing at Tanzania\u2019s national laboratory for confirmation of the outbreak, WHO said in a statement on Tuesday.
\nThe patients\u2019 contacts, including health care workers, have been identified and were being followed up, WHO reported.
\nThe outbreak in Rwanda, which shares a border with Tanzania\u2019s Kagera region, infected 66 people and killed 15 before it was declared over on December 20.
\nMarburg virus can spread between people through direct contact or via blood and other bodily fluids of infected people, including contaminated bedding or clothing.
\nAn outbreak in the Kagera region in March 2023 killed six people and lasted for nearly two months.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NAIROBI: 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 neighboring Rwanda. The viral hemorrhagic fever has a fatality rate as high as 88 percent, and is from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-455539","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n