CDC Urges Travel Precautions amid Marburg Virus Outbreak

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has urged travelers to Tanzania to take precautions after an outbreak of the Marburg virus.

The CDC released a Level 1 advisory, admonishing travelers to Tanzania to “Practice Usual Precautions,” after the country’s government declared an outbreak of the Marburg virus. 

“On March 21, 2023, Tanzania declared an outbreak of Marburg virus disease,” the advisory read. “Confirmed cases have been reported in the Kagera Region.”

The CDC advises those who do choose to travel to avoid contact with those who present symptoms, as well as blood, other bodily fluids, and dead bodies or items that have been in contact with dead bodies.

A CDC information page notes the virus has an incubation period of between two and 21 days and infected people typically experience a sudden onset. 

Initial symptoms include “fever, chills, headache, and myalgia,’ possibly followed by “maculopapular rash, most prominent on the trunk (chest, back, stomach),” as well as “[n]ausea, vomiting, chest pain, a sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea,” per the CDC.

The CDC noted more severe cases can involve “jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction” and the illness has a 23 and 90 percent fatality rate. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) cited “cross-border population movements” as being implicated in the spread of the virus and noted, “Marburg virus has been isolated from fruit bats (Roussettus aegyptiacus) in Tanzania and countries neighboring the affected Kagera region, therefore, the same bat species may carry the virus in this region.

There have been other reports of the virus elsewhere on the continent. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) noted that in February, the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare of Equatorial Guinea reported eight cases of suspected Marburg virus.

The U.S. Embassy in the country announced in March “a new, temporary policy under which official travel to the mainland region — including Bata — by Embassy employees is only permitted for mission-critical needs.”