Ethiopia Declares First Marburg Outbreak Over After Rapid Response and Vaccine Trial

A quiet end to a first-time outbreak

JINKA, Ethiopia — When the last of 857 people exposed to Marburg virus in southern Ethiopia finished 21 days of monitoring this month without falling ill, health workers in the town of Jinka marked the moment quietly. The isolation wards they had rushed to improvise in November were nearly empty. Body bags and bleach drums sat stacked in corners.

On Jan. 26, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health declared what those workers had already begun to sense: the country’s first recorded outbreak of Marburg virus disease was over.

The announcement, confirmed by the World Health Organization’s Regional Office for Africa, came 42 days after the last known patient tested negative—the equivalent of two full incubation periods for the highly lethal hemorrhagic fever. In that time, 14 people were confirmed to have been infected. Nine died. Five survived. Another five people are classified as probable Marburg deaths based on their symptoms and links to known cases.

The numbers are small. The stakes were not. Ethiopia’s encounter with Marburg turned four districts in the South Ethiopia and Sidama regions into a live test of how quickly a first-time country could recognize and contain a filovirus outbreak—and how emerging vaccines and drugs might be used during one.

“The rapid containment of this outbreak reflects strong national leadership, effective coordination, and the dedication of frontline responders and communities,” Health Minister Dr. Mekdes Daba said in a statement announcing the end of the outbreak. She added that “sustaining preparedness remains essential to protect the population from future public health threats.”

What Marburg is—and why it is feared

Marburg virus, a close relative of Ebola, causes sudden high fever, severe weakness and gastrointestinal symptoms that can progress to internal and external bleeding. Past outbreaks in Africa have had case fatality rates ranging from 24% to 88%, depending largely on how quickly patients receive intensive supportive care. There is no licensed vaccine or specific antiviral treatment.

How the outbreak was detected

Ethiopian authorities first became alarmed in early November, when a cluster of patients with suspected viral hemorrhagic fever appeared around Jinka, a town in the South Ethiopia Region near the borders with Kenya and South Sudan. On Nov. 12, the government notified the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), based in Addis Ababa, that they were investigating a potential outbreak.

Two days later, national laboratory testing at the Ethiopian Public Health Institute confirmed the presence of Marburg virus. The Ministry of Health publicly declared an outbreak on Nov. 14, the first such declaration in the country’s history.

By Nov. 20, six laboratory-confirmed cases and three deaths had been identified, along with three additional probable deaths in people who had died before samples could be collected. The virus was traced to four districts: Jinka and Malle in South Ethiopia Region, and Arba Minch and Hawassa, the capital of Sidama Region.

The response: contact tracing and surge staffing

Health authorities moved quickly to install incident management structures many countries only built during COVID-19. A national task force was set up in Addis Ababa. The Public Health Emergency Operations Center was activated. A three-month response plan was drafted to coordinate surveillance, contact tracing, case management and community outreach.

Field teams ultimately identified and followed 857 close contacts of confirmed and probable cases, visiting them daily for 21 days to check for fever and early symptoms. More than 3,800 laboratory tests for Marburg and other pathogens were performed, according to Africa CDC.

WHO’s Ethiopia office deployed 36 experts to the affected areas and reassigned 28 staff members to outbreak duties within 24 hours of confirmation, providing laboratory supplies, personal protective equipment, vehicles and technical support for case management, infection prevention and control, and risk communication.

“Preparedness saved time, and time saved lives,” Dr. Senait Tekeste Fekadu, WHO’s incident manager for the outbreak, said in a statement.

Despite those efforts, the virus took a heavy toll on the very people working to stop it. Three health workers were infected; two died and one recovered. Investigators cited early gaps in infection prevention measures and unsupervised burials as key contributors to transmission.

Experimental tools: vaccine trial and treatments

Even as Ethiopia and its regional partners rushed to contain the outbreak with established tools—isolation, contact tracing, safe burials and public education—a parallel effort unfolded around experimental countermeasures.

On Dec. 4, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced it was providing Ethiopia with up to 2,500 doses of an investigational Marburg vaccine and up to 25 treatment courses of an experimental monoclonal antibody therapy. The products, funded through the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, were shipped under emergency arrangements at the request of Ethiopian authorities.

The vaccine, known as cAd3‑Marburg, is developed by the Sabin Vaccine Institute. It uses a chimpanzee adenovirus vector to deliver a Marburg virus protein and had reached Phase 2 clinical trials in the United States and East Africa before the Ethiopian outbreak. It was previously deployed during a 2024 Marburg outbreak in Rwanda to vaccinate frontline workers.

In Ethiopia, health officials and Sabin researchers launched a rapid Phase 2 study embedded in the outbreak response. High-risk health workers and frontline responders, along with direct contacts of confirmed cases, were offered immediate vaccination. A second group of health workers and contacts was randomly assigned to receive the vaccine either right away or three weeks later, allowing investigators to gather data on immune responses and real-world feasibility without delaying care.

At the same time, Ethiopia received 1,200 doses of remdesivir, an antiviral better known for its use against COVID‑19, under an emergency authorization from the Ethiopian Food and Drug Authority. While remdesivir is not approved for Marburg, laboratory and animal studies suggest activity against related filoviruses. The country also received initial shipments of the MBP091 monoclonal antibody, designed to target Marburg virus specifically.

Health officials have not yet detailed how many patients received experimental treatments or the outcomes of those cases. Analyses are expected later this year.

Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya said Ethiopia’s approach—combining standard outbreak controls with targeted use of investigational tools—“ensured early detection, maintained public confidence and preserved continuity of care.”

Regional implications and what comes next

That continuity was a priority in a country already confronting other health emergencies, including cholera and measles outbreaks and the long tail of internal conflict. Ethiopian and African Union officials have stressed that primary health services, including routine childhood vaccinations, continued in affected districts even as screening teams went house to house.

Beyond Ethiopia’s borders, the outbreak prompted neighboring South Sudan and Kenya to raise their alert levels, particularly in counties along the frontier. No Marburg cases have been detected outside Ethiopia during this event, according to WHO and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The episode adds Ethiopia’s name to a growing list of African countries that have confronted Marburg for the first time in recent years, including Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania in 2023 and Rwanda in 2024. Public health officials say that pattern reflects both better surveillance for rare viral hemorrhagic fevers and persistent exposure to the virus’s suspected natural host, the Egyptian fruit bat, which is present in caves and mines across East and Central Africa.

Genetic analysis of viral samples from Ethiopia indicates that the strain is closely related to those seen in previous East African outbreaks, WHO has said.

For now, health authorities are focused on consolidating gains from the response. After-action reviews are planned to examine how surveillance systems performed, whether personal protective equipment and training reached clinics in time, and how communities perceived risk messages about avoiding contact with sick people and wildlife.

Dr. Mekdes has framed the end of the outbreak as both a success and a warning.

“Ethiopia has shown that with strong coordination and support, even a first-time country can contain a deadly virus like Marburg,” she said. “But we cannot be complacent. The threat of new outbreaks remains, and preparedness must be part of our everyday health system, not just our emergency response.”