Guinea‘s Health authorities have confirmed one death from Marburg virus, a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever equivalent to Ebola, the World Health Organization (WHO) said. It marks the first time that the fatal disease has been identified in west Africa. There have been a dozen major Marburg outbreaks since 1967, mostly in southern and eastern Africa.

Guinea’s new case was first recognised last week, just two months after the country was declared free of Ebola following a brief flare-up earlier this year that killed 12 people.

Analysts at Guinea’s national haemorrhagic fever laboratory and the Institute Pasteur in Senegal later confirmed the Marburg diagnosis. “The potential for the Marburg virus to spread far and wide means we need to stop it in its tracks,” Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization’s regional director for Africa, said. “We are working with the health authorities to implement a swift response that builds on Guinea’s past experience and expertise in managing Ebola, which is transmitted in a similar way,” Moeti said.

Both the Marburg case and this year’s Ebola cases were identified in Guinea’s Gueckedou district, near the borders with Liberia and Ivory Coast. The first cases of the 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic, the largest in history, also were from the same region in south-eastern Guinea’s forest region.

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