Ethiopia's first Marburg outbreak ended with 14 confirmed cases, including nine deaths and five recoveries, plus five fatal probable cases.

The last confirmed patient died on 14 December 2025 and was buried under safe protocols, starting the 42-day countdown required by the World Health Organization. It was the country's first documented Marburg virus disease event. ⁠

How the First Marburg Outbreak Began

The first known patient, an adult from Jinka town in the South Ethiopia Region, developed symptoms on 23 October 2025 and presented the next day with vomiting, loss of appetite and abdominal cramps. Testing at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute identified Marburg virus, and the Ministry of Health declared the outbreak on 14 November 2025.

Cases were later reported from the Jinka, Malle and Dasench woredas and from Hawassa in the Sidama Region. By 25 January 2026 the total stood at 19 cases: 14 confirmed, with a case fatality rate of 64.3 per cent, and five probable deaths.

Five confirmed patients recovered. Three health workers were infected; two died and one recovered. No licensed vaccine or therapeutic is currently available, although several candidates are being evaluated in clinical trials. Marburg virus is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people or contaminated materials; fruit bats are its natural reservoir.

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Surveillance and the Six-Week Window

Teams listed 857 contacts, 760 in South Ethiopia and 97 in Sidama, and all completed 21 days of follow-up by 25 January 2026. As of 5 January, 3,800 samples had been tested. Emergency centres were activated nationally and regionally, with isolation, supportive care and community engagement scaled up within days of confirmation.

The World Health Organization activated its mechanisms within 24 hours, deploying 36 experts and redirecting 28 further staff. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X that Ethiopia had declared the end of its first-ever outbreak and that the government-led response had contained transmission in less than three months.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said transmission was interrupted within one month and that the outbreak was fully contained six weeks later, with 14 laboratory-confirmed cases. Minister of Health Dr Mekdes Daba called the outcome a landmark and said 42 days without new cases met the criteria for declaring the country free of the virus. ⁠

Partners and Residual Risk

The European Union allocated €1.2 million in emergency aid, equivalent to £1.02 million ($1.35 million), channelled through several partners. Of that, about €700,000 about £0.59 million ($0.78 million), went to the World Health Organization in Ethiopia for supplies, isolation capacity and contact tracing. Dr Senait Tekeste Fekadu, the incident manager, said: 'Preparedness saved time, and time saved lives.'

After-action reviews are under way. No further cases appeared during the countdown, yet re-emergence remains possible because fruit bats are the reservoir. Risk communication continues in the affected districts. ⁠

Ethiopia's first Marburg outbreak is closed on the official count of 14 confirmed cases and nine confirmed deaths, with surveillance folded into routine services. Communities in Jinka, Malle, Dasench and Hawassa remain the focus of residual monitoring, and the Ministry of Health has said sustained readiness will matter more than the speed of this end.

What the declaration does not settle is the quieter work that follows a viral haemorrhagic fever. The World Health Organization has backed a survivors programme with the regional health bureau, and it urges countries to offer recovered patients follow-up for lingering illness plus testing of body fluids, which can remain infectious after someone is clinically well.

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