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 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.

Tanzanian authorities deny Marburg virus presence after WHO reports deaths, with laboratory tests returning negative.

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.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that there are no confirmed cases of Marburg virus in Tanzania, despite reports on Tuesday by the World Health Organization indicating that suspected cases of the virus had been identified in the Kagera region.

A Marburg virus outbreak in Tanzania has caused eight deaths and nine suspected cases. Symptoms include severe fever, headache, fatigue, and bleeding. With up to an 88% fatality rate, the virus spreads from fruit bats to humans.

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

In March 2023, Tanzania reported its first Marburg virus outbreak, which also occurred in Kagera region. The outbreak was declared over in June 2023, with nine infections reported, six of them fatal. The WHO said zoonotic reservoirs of the virus, such as fruit bats, remain in the area.

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 neighbouring Rwanda.

So far, nine people have been infected with suspected Marburg, with samples currently in a laboratory for official confirmation. Their symptoms included headaches, high fever, back pain, vomiting blood and, in the most serious cases, bleeding from their orifices.