Tanzania denies deadly virus outbreak amid WHO accusations
Tanzania’s Ministry of Health has denied the presence of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in the country, confirming that laboratory tests of suspected cases of the lethal disease in the Kagera region were negative. This follows reports by the World Health Organization (WHO) of suspected cases.
The country’s health minister said in a statement released on Wednesday that “all suspected individuals were negative for Marburg virus.”
The WHO had highlighted that individuals in the Kagera region had shown symptoms consistent with the Marburg virus, including fever, vomiting blood, and external bleeding.
During a virtual press conference held in Geneva on Thursday, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Tanzania to submit the collected samples to international reference laboratories and gather additional samples in line with standard procedures.
In response to the WHO’s concerns, Tanzania emphasized having strengthened its health surveillance systems to detect and respond promptly to threats.
The Kagera region had previously experienced a Marburg virus outbreak in March 2023. That outbreak resulted in nine confirmed cases and six deaths.
The Marburg virus, formerly known as Marburg hemorrhagic fever was first identified in 1967 following simultaneous outbreaks in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia. It is a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola that stems from contact with bodily fluids or contaminated surfaces.
Rwanda recently confirmed that bats are the likely source of its first recorded cases of Marburg virus.
In 2023, Tanzania and Equatorial Guinea reported cases of the disease, following outbreaks in Ghana in 2022 and Uganda in 2017.
