Equatorial Guinea confirms eight more Marburg cases: WHO | World Health Organization News

Recent cases of Marburg disease have also been reported in Cameroon and Tanzania, according to the WHO.

Eight new confirmed cases of the Marburg disease have been reported in Equatorial Guinea, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday.

This brings the total of laboratory-confirmed cases to nine and probable cases to 20 since the outbreak of the disease – a deadly one similar to Ebola – was declared in February. Twenty deaths have been reported.

“The confirmation of these new cases is a critical signal to scale up response efforts to quickly stop the chain of transmission,” WHO Africa Director Matshidiso Moeti said in the statement.

Of the eight new cases, two were reported from the Central African country’s Kie-Ntem province, four from the Litoral province and two from Centre-Sur province, the WHO said in a statement.

The areas reporting cases are about 150 kilometres (93 miles) apart, suggesting a wider transmission of the virus, the WHO said.

Marburg virus disease is a viral haemorrhagic fever that can have a death rate of up to 88 percent, according to the health agancy.

Symptoms include fever, fatigue and blood-stained vomit and diarrhoea. There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat it.

Neighbouring Cameroon also detected two suspected cases of Marburg disease last month despite restricting movement along the border to avoid contagion.

On Tuesday, Tanzania confirmed eight cases of Marburg, including five deaths.