Sunday, November 16, 2025 - Ethiopia has confirmed an outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the south of the country, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said on Saturday.
The World Health Organization Director-General Tedros
Adhanom Ghebreyesus praised the Ethiopian government’s fast action, saying it
showed a “commitment to bringing the outbreak under control quickly.”
Ethiopia’s government had reported on Thursday that it was
investigating a possible outbreak of an unidentified viral hemorrhagic fever
and was lauded by the continental health emergency body, Africa CDC, for its
transparency.
The WHO sent a technical team on Thursday to support the
East African country in testing and outbreak response.
“WHO is also providing essential supplies, including
personal protective equipment for health workers and infection-prevention
supplies, as well as a rapidly deployable isolation tent to bolster clinical
care and management capacity,” the U.N. agency said in a statement.
The outbreak was reported in the southern region of Omo,
which borders South Sudan. Africa CDC Director-General Jean Kaseya said
Thursday that the outbreak was a concern because “South Sudan isn’t far and has
a fragile health system.”
No other African country has reported Marburg virus cases in
recent weeks.
Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in fruit bats and
spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected
individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bedsheets.
Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, diarrhea, vomiting,
and in some cases death from extreme blood loss. There is no authorized vaccine
or treatment for Marburg.
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