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.

The unidentified man fell sick with “fever, headache, fatigue [and] abdominal pain” last month in Gueckedou in Guinea, close to the borders with Sierra Leone and Liberia, WHO officials announced Monday. 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.