Equatorial Guinea has confirmed its first outbreak of Marburg virus, a highly contagious and deadly disease similar to Ebola. The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it killed at least nine people on Monday.

Last week, the small Central African country quarantined more than 200 people and restricted movement in its Kie-Ntem province after detecting an unknown hemorrhagic fever. Neighboring Cameroon also has restricted movement along its border due to contagion concerns. In addition to the nine deaths, Equatorial Guinea has reported 16 suspected cases of Marburg virus, with symptoms including fever, fatigue, bloody vomit and diarrhoea, the World Health Organisation said.

According to the World Health Organisation, the Marburg virus disease has a mortality rate of 88%. There are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat it.

Equatorial Guinea’s health minister, Mitoha Ondo’o Ayekaba, said Friday that the deaths were initially linked to a funeral in the Nsok Nsomo district of Kie-Ntem province. Local health authorities initially reported an unidentified illness causing hemorrhagic fever on February 7 and sent samples to a laboratory in Senegal, which confirmed that one of the cases tested positive for Marburg virus disease, the World Health Organisation said. It said that the teams conduct contact tracing and isolate and treat suspected cases.

“Thanks to the quick and decisive identification of the disease by the Equatorial Guinean authorities, the emergency response was able to be quickly and fully deployed,” Dr Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, said in a statement.