Ethiopia says three dead in Marburg virus outbreak

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ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) -Three people confirmed to have contracted the Marburg virus have died, while another three deaths are suspected to be linked to the highly contagious haemorrhagic disease, Ethiopia’s health ministry said on Monday.

The announcement follows Ethiopia’s confirmation of an outbreak of Marburg, a highly-contagious and haemorrhagic infection in a town in the country’s Southern Ethiopia Region on Friday, with at least nice cases identified.

“The Ethiopian Public Health Institute’s reference laboratory has confirmed that three… have died from the virus,” the ministry said in a statement. It added that additional three fatalities being investigated for a possible connection to the disease.

The ministry did not give a new overall number of cases but said 129 people who were in contact with the confirmed cases had been isolated and are being monitored.

Marburg, from the same virus family as Ebola, often presents with severe headaches and leads to haemorrhaging.

Previous outbreaks in Africa Africa have resulted in fatality rates as high as 80% or more, typically within eight to nine days of symptom onset.

The infection is transmitted through contact with bodily fluids such as saliva and blood, or by handling infected wild animals such as monkeys.

(Reporting by Dawit Endeshaw; Writing by Elias Biryabarema, Editing by George Obulutsa and Bate Felix)