A similar vaccine, being developed at the University of Oxford, UK, was also named as a priority for testing during a Marburg outbreak. Teresa Lambe, a vaccinologist at Oxford leading the Marburg vaccine’s development, says that the vaccine has so far proven safe in the handful of participants who have received it in an ongoing UK trial.

Rwandan health authorities have confirmed that eight people have died due to an outbreak of Marburg virus in the country

The highly contagious virus is a deadly haemorrhagic fever with no authorised vaccine, fatal in up to 88 per cent of patients.

A rare, highly contagious Ebola-like virus has claimed eight lives in Rwanda, and U.S. health officials are closely monitoring the outbreak. Marburg virus causes a rare hemorrhagic fever that has no authorized vaccine or treatment.

The deadly Marburg virus is believed to originate in fruit bats and spreads between people through close contact.

The Ebola-related Marburg virus kills around half of those infected but has been fatal in up to 90 per cent of cases.