WHO warns..!

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced: We are aware of nine cases so far, including eight deaths, and we expect more cases in the coming days as disease surveillance improves.

He added that WHO has offered its full assistance to the Tanzanian government and affected communities.

The warning comes less than a month after WHO announced a three-month outbreak of Marburg virus in neighboring Rwanda, which resulted in the deaths of 15 people.

Marburg virus causes a highly contagious hemorrhagic fever, transmitted to humans from fruit bats and belongs to the Ebola virus family.

Marburg virus belongs to the same family as Ebola, and has previously spread elsewhere in Africa in Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.

The death rate for those infected with the disease can reach nearly 90 percent, and Marburg fever is often accompanied by bleeding and organ failure.

According to the World Health Organization, the Kagera region experienced its first outbreak of Marburg virus in March 2023, and the outbreak lasted for about two months, during which nine people were infected with the virus and six died. It warns that although Marburg virus disease is rare, it still poses a serious threat to public health due to its high mortality rate and the lack of an effective treatment or vaccine.