Tanzania has dismissed a World Health Organisation (WHO) report of a suspected new outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in the north-west of the country. On Tuesday, the global health agency said a total of nine suspected cases were reported over the last five days in the Kagera region, including eight deaths.

Tanzania's government said no-one in the country had tested positive for the Marburg virus after the World Health Organization (WHO) said at least eight people in the northwest were believed to have died from it.

Tanzania has pushed back against a report from the World Health Organization warning of a new Marburg virus outbreak in the country.

With the fatality rate of 8% it is the same virus family as Ebola. The main carrier is from fruit bats which spreads to humans then through the contact of bodily fluids of infected individuals, it spreads to others.

Following a World Health Organization (WHO) alert 2 days ago about a suspected Marburg virus outbreak in Tanzania, the country's health ministry said yesterday that tests on collected samples were negative for the disease. The WHO had based its alert on reliable in-country sources.

Nine cases of the deadly disease have been reported in the Kagera region of Tanzania so far. But officials expect that number to rise.

Marburg virus is a close cousin of Ebola, causing similar symptoms and spreading in the same way. It can cause death in up to 88% of infected people.

So far, nine people have been infected with suspected Marburg, with samples currently in a laboratory for official confirmation. Their symptoms included headaches, high fever, back pain, vomiting blood and, in the most serious cases, bleeding from their orifices.