Voice of America
18 Mar 2023, 04:06 GMT+10
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania - Health officials in Tanzania are investigating an illness that killed five people in the country's northwest with Ebola-like symptoms, raising fears that it could be the deadly virus.
Tanzania's Ministry of Health late Thursday issued a statement saying seven people in northwest Kagera region showed symptoms such as fever, vomiting, bleeding and kidney failure.
The ministry sent audio comments by Chief Medical Officer Tumaini Nagu to media.
She said rapid response teams at the regional and council level have been sent to probe the unknown disease to understand and analyze it further. Nagu said samples have been taken from patients to identify the source of the disease.
Social media posts in Tanzania noted the symptoms were like those for Ebola, a deadly virus that causes high fevers, severe bleeding, and organ failure.
Kagera borders Tanzania's northern neighbor Uganda, which had an outbreak of the rare Sudan strain of Ebola from September last year to January that was blamed for 77 deaths.
Albert Chalamila, regional commissioner of Kagera, said in audio comments that his office sent to the media that officials are taking precautions.
Chalamila said they have continued to educate residents regarding the importance of taking all necessary precautions, including for COVID-19 and other illnesses such as Ebola. He said so far there are no reports of anyone having contracted the Ebola virus.
Tanzania is not unfamiliar with rare and mysterious diseases but has never recorded a case of Ebola.
An outbreak in the southeast last year of leptospirosis, a bacteria spread by rat urine, sickened 20 people and caused three deaths.
In 2019, a disease with Ebola-like symptoms that killed one woman who had visited Uganda led the WHO to question the government's response and lack of sharing information.
At the time, the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo was struggling with an Ebola outbreak that was the second largest on record, lasted nearly two years and killed more than 2,000 people.
Get a daily dose of Africa Leader news through our daily email, its complimentary and keeps you fully up to date with world and business news as well.
Publish news of your business, community or sports group, personnel appointments, major event and more by submitting a news release to Africa Leader.
More InformationIn Warsaw last February, President Joe Biden condemned the lawless Russian invasion of Ukraine: "The idea that over 100,000 forces ...
TOKYO, Japan: Fears over intensifying Chinese military activity directed towards Taiwan could escalate into war have prompted Japan, the United ...
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras: After Honduran President Xiomara Castro severed ties with Taiwan in favor of China to gain more investment and ...
NEW YORK, New York - A Manhattan grand jury has indicted Former U.S. President Donald Trump for his role in ...
MEMPHIS, Tennessee: Tennessee authorities are slowly releasing information about a weekend car crash on a freeway that killed six young ...
JAKARTA, Indonesia: Officials from Indonesia's Aceh province said that more than 180 Rohingya Muslims landed this week by boat, in ...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks finished the third quarter with a bang on Friday. Despite a volatile start, ...
CUPERTINO, California: In a move aimed at disrupting the fintech sector dominated by Affirm Holdings and Sweden's Klarna, this week ...
BURBANK, California: Walt Disney has begun its planned lay off of 7,000 staff, which was announced earlier this year.A letter ...
NEW YORK CITY, New York: A study published this week reported that China spent $240 billion between 2008 and 2021 ...
NEW YORK, New York - U.S. stocks posted a decent rally on Thursday with all the major indices making good ...
FREMONT, California: Neuralink, Elon Musk's brain implant company, has approached the Barrow Neurological Institute, one of the largest US neurosurgery ...