Tanzania’s national lab has confirmed one more Marburg virus case in an outbreak affecting Kagera region, where the virus triggered the country’s first Marburg outbreak in 2023, an official from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said at a briefing today.

Ngashi Ngongo, MD, PhD, who leads Africa CDC’s mpox incident management team, said 10 cases have been reported — 2 of them confirmed and 8 listed as probable. Nine deaths have been reported for a case fatality rate of 90%. The nine patients who died include one of the lab-confirmed patients, and eight who had probable infections.
The outbreak is occurring in the Biharamulo district Kagera region, where an outbreak that began in March 2023 resulted in nine cases, six of them fatal. Officials have raised concerns about the high risk of further spread, given that Kagera region is a transit hub and borders Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda.
So far, 31 tests have been conducted, of which 29 were negative, Ngongo said. He added that the Zimbabwe’s government has deployed a rapid response team and earmarked $10.8 million for a national response plan.
Officials consider use of experimental treatments, vaccines
Stepped-up surveillance activities have identified 281 contacts for follow-up.
Ngongo said health officials in Tanzania are discussing compassionate use of the same antivirals and candidate vaccine that were used to help stem a recent Marburg virus outbreak in Rwanda, which was declared over in on December 20 following 66 cases, 15 of them fatal.
The World Health Organization (WHO) initially reported a suspected Marburg outbreak on January 14 and the Tanzania’s government officially declared the outbreak on January 20.
Editorial note: This story was corrected on January 27 to correct country information in the final paragraph.