In Rwanda, 11 deaths have been reported from this rare but deadly disease. Two people tested negative in Germany this week.

Health officials in Rwanda are dealing with the country’s first outbreak of the Marburg virus, an Ebola-like disease which, if left untreated, has a fatality rate of up to 88%.

Two passengers with suspected cases of Marburg virus in Germany have tested negative for the highly contagious disease. The travellers – returning from Rwanda to Hamburg via Frankfurt – were taken for examination at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) on Wednesday (2 October).

Symptoms include fever, muscle pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and, in some cases, death through extreme blood loss. In Rwanda, most of the sick are health workers in six out of the country’s 30 districts.

Rwanda declared an outbreak of the highly contagious Marburg virus​, a deadly hemorrhagic fever that has no authorized vaccine or treatment.

Marburg has caused small, episodic outbreaks since first being identified, most recently last year in Tanzania and Ghana. It is one of the deadliest known viruses, with no approved vaccines or specific treatments.

Marburg virus disease has killed 11 people and sickened 25 others in Rwanda, which declared an outbreak on Sept. 27.

Amid reports of a deadly viral outbreak in Central Africa, researchers are reportedly scrambling to develop treatments and vaccines to combat Marburg virus.

There are no treatments or vaccines approved for Marburg, a virus in the same family as Ebola with a fatality rate between 24% to 88%.

The Marburg virus disease, which is similar to Ebola, has killed hundreds of people in recent years, mostly in African nations. It is fatal for about half the people it infects according to data from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

While outbreaks of Marburg virus are rare, there have been several in recent years across sub-Saharan Africa. It's one of the deadliest viral diseases and can be fatal. Here's what you need to know.