The Marburg virus was first identified in 1967 during simultaneous outbreaks in Marburg and Frankfurt (Germany) and Belgrade (Serbia). Researchers linked the outbreaks to African green monkeys imported for laboratory studies.

The Ministry of Health has enhanced surveillance and screenings in all points of entry to the country following reports of a Marburg virus outbreak in Tanzania. Last week, the World Health Organisation announced a suspected Marburg virus outbreak which has affected part of the neighbouring country. Tanzania has, however, dismissed the report.

The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a suspected outbreak of Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) in the Kagera region of northwestern Tanzania, with nine people reportedly infected, of whom eight have died.

Marburg virus is a close cousin of Ebola, causing similar symptoms and spreading in the same way. It can cause death in up to 88% of infected people.

Tanzanian authorities deny Marburg virus presence after WHO reports deaths, with laboratory tests returning negative.

Marburg virus disease, caused by a virus from the same family as Ebola, has a fatality rate of up to 88% without treatment.

Tanzania has pushed back against a report from the World Health Organization warning of a new Marburg virus outbreak in the country.

A suspected outbreak of the Marburg virus in northwest Tanzania has infected nine people, killing eight of them, the World Health Organization has said, weeks after an outbreak of the disease was declared over in neighbouring Rwanda.

Tanzania's government said no-one in the country had tested positive for the Marburg virus after the World Health Organization (WHO) said at least eight people in the northwest were believed to have died from it.

With the fatality rate of 8% it is the same virus family as Ebola. The main carrier is from fruit bats which spreads to humans then through the contact of bodily fluids of infected individuals, it spreads to others.