Deadly Ebola-like Marburg virus could ‘spread far and wide’ if not stopped: WHO

A man who died in West Africa has tested positive for the Ebola-like Marburg virus — with health officials scrambling to stop the killer disease before it can “spread far and wide,” the World Health Organization said.

He died on Aug. 2, with tests finally showing that he died from Marburg, a "highly infectious disease that causes hemorrhagic fever" — and has a fatality rate of up to 88 percent, the WHO said. Marburg "is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola," which killed at least 11,325 people in the 2014-2016 epidemic that started in the same part of Guinea. The country was only recently declared Ebola-free after a brief flare-up earlier this year killed 12.