• Tanzania has reported its first outbreak of the Marburg virus disease.

• The Tanzanian government has deployed an emergency response team to the area affected.

• The WHO is working with the government to scale up control measures to stop the virus’s spread and end it.

A month after Equatorial Guinea confirmed its first case, Tanzania has also announced its first outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus disease (MVD). five fatalities and three further cases have been reported at a hospital in the Kagera region, north-west of Tanzania.

According to figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), approximately 161 people have been identified as being at risk of infection through contact tracing. However, the Tanzanian government has put measures in place to curb the virus from further spreading by deploying an emergency response team to the area and neighboring countries have stepped up surveillance, although no case has been reported outside Kagera. 

The WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti said that “the efforts by Tanzania’s health authorities to establish the cause of the disease is a clear indication of the determination to effectively respond to the outbreak”. Moeti said that they are teaming up with the government to swiftly scale up control measures to curb the spread of the virus and end the outbreak as soon as possible.

The Marburg Virus Disease is of the same virus family as Ebola. It was first discovered in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany and in Belgrade, Serbia in 1967. The virus causes severe hemorrhagic fever, and fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88%. Since its discovery, there have been numerous outbreaks, the worst outbreak was in Angola between 2004-2005, with 252 cases and 227 deaths. It can be transmitted from fruits bats to humans and then passed from person to person through bodily fluids or contaminated things. Also, most healthcare providers and members of the family are susceptible to infection.

The illness signs and symptoms can range from fever, nausea, and rash at the beginning, to jaundice and extreme weight loss as the condition worsens. It can take up to 21 days for incubation to occur. The Tanzanian Health Minister, Ummy Mwalimu said in the announcement that patients who displayed symptoms of the disease were first identified last week in two villages in Kagera.

The virus has no known vaccines or remedies, although rehydrating the patient or controlling their blood and oxygen levels can lessen their symptoms and increase their chance of survival, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is providing further aid in efforts to contain the outbreak.

Tanzania’s health ministry has urged residents to exercise general caution and abide by health regulations until the situation is under control.