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.

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

Marburg virus is a close cousin of Ebola, causing similar symptoms and spreading in the same way. It can cause death in up to 88% of infected people.

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’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

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, including eight deaths.

The World Health Organization says an outbreak of suspected Marburg disease has killed eight people in a remote part of northern Tanzania.

Tanzania also had an outbreak that was declared by WHO on March 21. The outbreak was contained and Tanzania was declared marburg-free on July 23,2023

The deadly Marburg Virus Disease is suspected to have infected as many as nine people — including eight fatally — in Tanzania’s Kagera region, the World Health Organization said.