Monrovia — The Director-General of the African Centers for Disease Control, Jean Kaseya, has said the center stands is ready to support Tanzania and other countries in the region where suspected cases of the infectious Marburg Virus Disease is identified. The World Health Organization (WHO) earlier issued an alert warning of a possible outbreak in the country, although the Tanzanian Health Ministry said tests conducted on available samples did not show the existence of Marburg in the East African nation.

"As of the 15 of January 2025, laboratory results from all suspected individuals were negative for Marburg Virus," Tanzanian Health Minister Jenista Mhagama said in a statement. This would have marked the country's second experience with the highly infectious disease that recently killed over a dozen people in neighboring Rwanda. Tanzania previously reported an outbreak of Marburg in 2023 in the  Kegara region, said to have been the epicenter of the new suspected cases.

At the Africa CDC online briefing on Thursday, Kaseya also said another infectious disease, mpox "remains a public health concern". He said that while in December 2024, the disease had afflicted 20 countries, a new country - Sierra Leone - was added to the number after an outbreak there. Sierra Leonean health authorities said on January 10 that two cases of mpox were confirmed in the country and dozens of contacts are being traced.

With thousands of confirmed cases of mpox across Africa and more than 1,000 people killed by the disease  - mainly in Central Africa - Kaseya said more testing is needed. The Africa CDC's DG said over the next few months the continental health watchdog will deploy additional epidemiologists and community health workers to areas considered hot spots of infectious diseases in the region.