FIVE people have died after testing positive for one of world’s most lethal diseases in Tanzania, officials have said.
The Marburg virus, which is similar to Ebola, causes those who catch it to bleed to death.
Avalon.redMarburg virus has killed five people in Tanzania[/caption]
It’s the first time the nasty bug, which has a mortality rate of 90 per cent, has been found in the east African country.
Health authorities are now scrambling to contain the disease and end the outbreak “as soon as possible”, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa, said,
Three people with the bug are currently being treated in hospital and authorities are tracing and monitoring 161 contacts.
Tanzania’s health minister, Ummy Mwalimu, said the disease had been contained and she was confident it would not spread further.
It comes as Equatorial Guinea, in central Africa, reported its first outbreak last month.
According to the WHO and local authorities, at least nine people have died.
Last July, two people in Ghana, western Africa, died from the virus and 98 contacts were quarantined.
The nasty bug is transmitted to people from fruit bats, and it can spread between humans through direct contact with bodily fluids, surfaces and materials, the WHO said.
No treatment or vaccine exists for Marburg.
In 2014-16 the largest outbreak of Ebola since 1970 began in Guinea.
Cases were recorded in Nigeria, the US, UK, Spain and Italy.
There were 28,616 suspected, probable and confirmed cases in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and 11,310 deaths.
There have been a dozen major Marburg outbreaks since it was discovered in Marburg, Germany, in 1967.
Cases have mostly been in southern and eastern Africa, including Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, WHO said.