The Marburg virus is one of the deadliest known pathogens. Like Ebola, it causes severe bleeding, fever, vomiting, and diarrhoea and has a 21-day incubation period.

Also like Ebola, it is transmitted via contact with bodily fluids and has a fatality rate of between 25 and 80 percent.

The outbreak — the first ever recorded in Ethiopia — was confirmed in the city of Jinka, about 430 kilometres (211 miles) southwest of capital Addis Ababa, and a few hundred kilometres from South Sudan and Kenya’s borders.

The ministry said on Facebook that “17 suspected cases have been tested, and 3 deaths have been confirmed as caused by the virus.”

Three other individuals who exhibited symptoms but whose cases were not laboratory confirmed also died, the ministry said.

Health authorities in Africa’s second most populous nation said “129 people who had contact with the patients are currently in self-isolation and under close monitoring.”

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus confirmed on Friday that at least nine cases had been detected in southern Ethiopia, two days after the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) was alerted to a suspected haemorrhagic virus in the region.

Africa CDC confirmed the outbreak on Saturday after laboratory tests returned positive for the deadly virus.

An epidemic of Marburg virus killed 10 people in Tanzania in January before being contained in March.

Rwanda said in December 2024 it had managed to stamp out its first known Marburg epidemic, which caused 15 deaths.

There is no approved vaccines or antiviral treatments for Marburg, but oral or intravenous rehydration and treatment of specific symptoms increases patients’ chances of survival.

Last year, Rwanda trialled an experimental vaccine from the US-based Sabin Vaccine Institute.

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