NINE people have died in an outbreak of an eye-bleeding disease in Tanzania, Africa's health agency has announced.
This exceeds the eight suspected deaths reported by the World Health Organization (WHO) earlier this month, which had warned that "more cases" were likely to be identified.
Since the country officially announced the outbreak last week, ten people have tested positive for Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola.
Of these, nine have died – reflecting the virus's 90 per cent mortality rate.
The cases were reported in the Kagera region of Tanzania.
Located in the northwest of the country, Kagera has a population of nearly three million.
It is connected by train to Dar es Salaam, which has an international airport, raising concerns about the potential for wider spread.
Ngashi Ngongo, from Africa Centre for Disease Control Centre (CDC) told an online briefing that the figures reflected "the very high case fatality of Marburg".
"We are doing everything we can with WHO and all the partners."
He said that teams, including members who had already countered a recent outbreak in neighbouring country, were already "on the ground".
From the ten cases "about 281 contacts have been listed and are being followed", he said, praising the tracking of the virus so far.
"There have been a total of 31 tests that have been conducted, two confirmed, and 29 I think, that are negative," he said.
It comes a month after WHO declared the end of a three-month Marburg outbreak in Rwanda which killed 15 people.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, from the WHO, previously said the global risk from Tanzania's current outbreak was "low".
"Even though there is no approved treatment or vaccines, outbreaks can be stopped quickly," he said.
"WHO advises against restrictions. Now is the time for collaboration."
Marburg has been flagged by the WHO as a "priority pathogen" with pandemic potential.
Previous outbreaks have seen around half of those infected die, though in places where health care is poor, that has risen to nearly 90 per cent.
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