Kampala, Jan 15 (IANS): Uganda is on high alert following a suspected Marburg virus disease (MVD) outbreak in neighboring Tanzania that has left eight people dead, a health official said here Wednesday.

Henry Kyobe Bosa, incident commander at Uganda's Ministry of Health, told Xinhua news agency over the telephone that health authorities have heightened surveillance and implemented precautionary measures at the border points with Tanzania to prevent the importation of the highly fatal virus into Uganda. According to the ministry, no case of MVD has been reported within the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Monday informed its member states of suspected cases of MVD in Tanzania's Kagera Region, with symptoms of headache, high fever, back pain, diarrhea, vomiting with blood, body weakness, and external bleeding.

"We are following WHO risk assessment to put in place measures for early detection and response, and should there be a need, to undertake active case search in view of the classified risk in the region and globally," Bosa said.

According to the WHO, the regional risk is considered high due to the strategic importance of the Kagera Region as a transit hub, with significant cross-border movement of people to Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

In March 2023, Tanzanian health authorities announced that an outbreak of Marburg viral disease that had killed five people in the Kagera Region was under control.

MVD is a highly virulent disease that causes hemorrhagic fever, with a fatality rate of up to 88 per cent, according to the WHO.

The highly fatal, zoonotic hemorrhagic disease is caused by the Marburg virus, and human-to-human transmission occurs through direct contact with body fluids from infected persons or contact with equipment and other materials contaminated with infectious blood or tissues, body fluids of infected people, and contaminated surfaces or materials.