Rwanda has begun administering vaccine doses against the Marburg virus to try to combat an outbreak of the Ebola-like disease in the east African country, where it has so far killed 12 people.

Its Health Minister Sabin Nsanzimana said at a news conference yesterday in the capital Kigali that the vaccinations would focus on those “most at risk, most exposed healthcare workers working in treatment centres, in the hospitals, in ICU, in emergency, but also the close contacts of the confirmed cases.”

The country has already received shipments of the vaccines including from the Sabin Vaccine Institute.

Rwanda’s first outbreak of the viral hemorrhagic fever was detected in late September, with 46 cases and 12 deaths reported since then. Marburg has a fatality rate as high as 88%.