The Tanzanian government has refuted claims by the World Health Organization (WHO) of a suspected new outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the northwestern Kagera region, asserting that all tested samples have returned negative results.
On Tuesday, WHO issued an alert, reporting nine suspected cases in Kagera over the past five days, including eight fatalities. However, Tanzania’s Health Minister, Jenista Mhagama, dismissed these claims, assuring the public and international health bodies that no new cases of Marburg virus had been detected.
“After analyzing the samples, all suspected cases tested negative for the Marburg virus,” Mhagama said in a statement. She emphasized that Tanzania has strengthened its disease surveillance and monitoring systems to address potential health threats.
The minister also reaffirmed Tanzania’s commitment to transparency, stating, “We assure international organizations, including WHO, that we will continue to provide updates on any developments.”
Despite the Tanzanian government’s position, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus cautioned that additional cases could still emerge. “We expect further cases in the coming days as disease surveillance improves,” Tedros warned on Wednesday.
WHO revealed that healthcare workers and others who might have been exposed to the virus were under close monitoring. Rapid response teams were also deployed to identify potential cases and contain the suspected outbreak.
While WHO classified the global risk of the outbreak as “low,” it described the regional risk as “high” due to Kagera’s strategic location as a transit hub with significant cross-border movement to neighboring countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda. However, WHO stated, “We do not recommend travel or trade restrictions with Tanzania at this time.”
Tanzania previously experienced its first Marburg outbreak in March 2023 in the Bukoba district, which claimed six lives and lasted nearly two months.
The Marburg virus, a highly contagious disease similar to Ebola, causes symptoms such as fever, muscle pain, diarrhea, vomiting, and severe cases of fatal blood loss. The virus, which is transmitted from fruit bats to humans and spreads through contact with bodily fluids of infected individuals, has an average fatality rate of 50%, according to WHO. Currently, no vaccines or specific treatments exist, although clinical trials are ongoing.
In response to the recent alert, Tanzanian health officials dispatched experts to Kagera for further investigations and specimen collection. While Minister Mhagama confirmed that laboratory tests ruled out a new Marburg outbreak, she did not disclose the total number of suspected cases examined.
