A plague epidemic has killed 94 people on the island of Madagascar and could spread further, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

WHO's Africa emergencies director, Ibrahima Soce Fall, told reporters in Geneva the organization was racing to stop both the Madagascar plague and an outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus in Uganda that it was confident it could contain.

Plague is endemic in Madagascar, but the outbreak that has caused 1,153 suspected cases since August is especially worrying because it started earlier in the season than usual, has hit towns rather than rural areas, and is mainly causing pneumonic plague, the most deadly form of the disease.