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.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has warned of a suspected new outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in north-west Tanzania, saying that at least eight people have already been killed by the disease.

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention said on Thursday that there are no confirmed cases of Marburg virus in Tanzania, despite reports on Tuesday by the World Health Organization indicating that suspected cases of the virus had been identified in the Kagera region.

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

Like Ebola, the Marburg virus originates in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact with the bodily fluids of infected individuals or with surfaces, such as contaminated bed sheets

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

Tanzanian authorities deny Marburg virus presence after WHO reports deaths, with laboratory tests returning negative.

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.

The Tanzanian government has denied reports by the World Health Organsation (WHO) of a suspected new outbreak of the deadly Marburg virus in the northwestern