Wed Jan 22 07:36:52 UTC 2025: ## Tanzania Confirms New Marburg Virus Case, Second Outbreak This Year
**DODOMA, Tanzania** – Tanzania has confirmed a new case of the deadly Marburg virus, marking the second outbreak in the country this year, President Samia Suluhu Hassan announced on Monday. The confirmed case, located in the northwestern Kagera region bordering Uganda and Rwanda, follows reports last week from the World Health Organization (WHO) of a suspected outbreak resulting in eight deaths. While the Tanzanian government has not confirmed the cause of those earlier deaths, President Hassan stated that 26 suspected cases were tested, with only one returning a positive result for Marburg.
The WHO, whose Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is currently in Dodoma, has pledged continued support to Tanzania’s efforts to contain the outbreak. The agency emphasized the Tanzanian government’s strong capabilities in managing such outbreaks and advised against travel and trade restrictions. Tanzania successfully contained a previous Marburg outbreak in the same Kagera region earlier this year, which involved nine cases and six deaths.
The highly infectious Marburg virus, transmitted through fruit bats and related to Ebola, causes hemorrhagic fever with a fatality rate nearing 90%. Symptoms include fever and bleeding, often leading to organ failure. This latest case comes just a month after the WHO declared the end of a Marburg outbreak in neighboring Rwanda, which claimed 15 lives. Tanzania is currently enhancing case detection, establishing treatment centers and a mobile laboratory, and deploying national response teams to manage the situation.
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