Three people have died after contracting the Marburg virus, and three more are suspected of being linked to the extremely contagious haemorrhagic sickness, Ethiopia's health ministry announced on Monday. Ethiopia's Health Minister, Mekdes Daba, said the government, which announced a Marburg epidemic on Friday, had tested 17 probable cases in the country's south. The outbreak has been recorded in the Omo region.
The minister stated that there were no active instances, but the government was taking preventative steps. A team from the World Health Organization and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been dispatched to assist with testing and outbreak management.
"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 an additional three fatalities are being investigated for a possible connection to the disease.
The ministry did not provide a new total number of cases, but stated that 129 people in touch with confirmed cases had been separated and are being monitored.
Marburg, a virus in the same family as Ebola, causes severe headaches and hemorrhaging. The Virus is spread through contact with human fluids like saliva and blood, or by handling infected wild animals like monkeys.
Previous outbreaks in Africa have seen fatality rates of 80% or more, usually within eight to nine days of symptom start.
