Kenya has been put on High-Alert after neighboring Tanzania confirmed an outbreak of the Marburg virus with over eight people having been infected and five reported dead.
Marburg virus is a hemorrhagic fever virus of the Filoviridae family of viruses which according to the World Health Organization, is in the same family as Ebola. Marburg virus is a highly infectious and often fatal hemorrhagic fever. It causes Marburg virus disease in primates, a form of viral hemorrhagic fever, and the virus is considered to be extremely dangerous.
The Marbug virus symptoms include fever, vomiting, bleeding from different parts of the body, and liver failure.
The disease is transmitted to people from contact with fruit bats and their faeces. It then spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces, and materials touched by infected people.