NINE people have died in an outbreak of an eye-bleeding disease in Tanzania, Africa's health agency has announced.
This exceeds the eight suspected deaths reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this month, which had warned that "more cases" were likely to be identified.
Since the country officially announced the outbreak last week, ten people have tested positive for Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola.
Of these, nine have died – reflecting the virus's 90 per cent mortality rate.
The cases were reported in the Kagera region of Tanzania.
Located in the northwest of the country, Kagera has a population of nearly three million.
It is connected by train to Dar es Salaam, which has an international airport, raising concerns about the potential for wider spread.
Ngashi Ngongo, from Africa Centre for Disease Control Centre (CDC) 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 country, were already "on the ground".
From the ten cases "about 281 contacts have been listed and are being followed", he said, praising the tracking of the virus so far.
"There have been a total of 31 tests that have been conducted, two confirmed, and 29 I think, that are negative," he said.
It comes a month after WHO declared the end of a three-month Marburg outbreak in Rwanda which killed 15 people.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, from the WHO, previously said the global risk from Tanzania's current outbreak was "low".
"Even though there is no approved treatment or vaccines, outbreaks can be stopped quickly," he said.
"WHO advises against restrictions. Now is the time for collaboration."
Marburg has been flagged by the WHO as a "priority pathogen" with pandemic potential.
Previous outbreaks have seen around half of those infected die, though in places where health care is poor, that has risen to nearly 90 per cent.
Marburg is a filovirus like its more famous cousin, Ebola.
These are part of a broader group of viruses that can cause viral haemorrhagic fever, a syndrome of fever and bleeding.
Up to 90 per cent of those infected die.
The first outbreaks occurred in 1967 in lab workers in Germany and Yugoslavia who were working with African green monkeys imported from Uganda.
The virus was identified in a lab in Marburg, Germany.
Since then, outbreaks have occurred in a handful of countries in Africa, less frequently than Ebola.
Marburg’s natural host is a fruit bat, but it can also infect primates, pigs and other animals.
Human outbreaks start after a person has contact with an infected animal.
It’s spread between people mainly through direct contact, especially with bodily fluids, and it causes an illness like Ebola, with fever, headache and malaise, followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, and aches and pains.
The bleeding follows about five days later, and it can be fatal in up to 90 per cent of people infected
The virus is highly infectious spreading among humans through such as blood, saliva, muscus.
There is currently no way to cure it, though several vaccines and drugs are under development.
Early symptoms can resemble those of more common illnesses like the flu, including muscle aches, fever, and chills.
Vomiting blood and diarrhoea, and uncontrolled bleeding from the eyes, nose and gums, can emerge in the later stages before - in some cases - death.
Tanzania experienced its first Marburg outbreak in March 2023 in the Bukoba district.
It killed six people and lasted for nearly two months.
Speaking to The Sun following the outbreak in Rwanda, Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia, said cases could "crop up in any country globally".
"The incubation period is between five and 15 days, plenty long enough for someone to get on a plane and fly anywhere in the world," he explained.
The incubation period of a virus is the time between exposure to the bug and the onset of symptoms.
“Airport screening wouldn’t eliminate that risk due to the long incubation period,” Prof Paul said, as people could be travelling without showing any symptoms.
