EQUATORIAL GUINEA HAS confirmed another eight cases of the “highly virulent” Marburg virus, a deadly haemorrhagic fever with no authorised vaccine or treatment.

It brings the country’s total number of cases to nine in the outbreak declared in mid-February, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said today.

There are two known current outbreaks of Marburg on the African continent.

Tanzania this week announced eight cases of Marburg, including five deaths. One of the dead was a health worker.

“Our pathogen genomics team will sequence samples from both places … and see if there is a relationship between the current two outbreaks,” the acting director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Ahmed Ogwell, told journalists today.

He said results should be known within the week.

The WHO said the new cases in Equatorial Guinea were found in the provinces of Kie Ntem, Litoral and Centro Sur, all with borders with Cameroon and Gabon.

“The areas reporting cases are about 150 kilometres apart, suggesting wider transmission of the virus,” the United Nations agency said.

It said it has deployed experts to the country to support the government’s response and strengthen community engagement.

There are currently no approved vaccines for Marburg, but speaking today, WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organisation is leading an effort to “evaluate candidate vaccines and therapeutics, in the context of the outbreak”.

“The developers are on board, the clinical trial protocols are ready, the experts and donors are ready, once the national government and the researchers give the green light,” he said.

“In the meantime, we are not defenseless. Careful contact tracing, isolation and supportive care are powerful tools to prevent transmission and save lives.”

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in bats and spreads between people via close contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, or surfaces, like contaminated bed sheets.

Without treatment, Marburg can be fatal in up to 88% of people who fall ill with the disease.

Marburg outbreaks and individual cases have in the past been recorded in Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa, Uganda and Ghana, according to the WHO.

The rare virus was first identified in 1967 after it caused simultaneous outbreaks of disease in laboratories in Marburg, Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia.

Seven people died after being exposed to the virus while conducting research on monkeys.

Additional reporting from Jane Moore