Ghana’s health ministry verified two cases of the Marburg virus, a highly contagious disease related to Ebola, on Sunday, after two patients tested positive for the virus earlier this month.
The two people died in hospital after experiencing symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, nausea, and vomiting, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
On July 10, tests in Ghana came back positive, but the results needed to be validated by a laboratory in Senegal before the cases could be declared confirmed, according to the World Health Organization.
“Further testing at the Institute Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal has corroborated the results,” Ghana Health Service (GHS) said in a statement.
GHS is striving to lessen the risk of the virus spreading, including isolating all known contacts, none of whom have experienced symptoms so far, according to the organization.
“(Ghanaian) health authorities have responded swiftly, getting a head start preparing for a possible outbreak. This is good because without immediate and decisive action, Marburg can easily get out of hand,” said Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.
WHO describes the Marburg virus disease as a highly contagious infection that produces hemorrhagic fever, with a fatality rate of up to 88 per cent.
It is related to the virus that causes Ebola virus illness. In 1967, two big outbreaks in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany, as well as Belgrade, Serbia, led to the disease’s early detection. The outbreak was linked to research with African green monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) brought from Uganda.
Following that, outbreaks and sporadic cases were recorded in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa (in a person who had just traveled to Zimbabwe), and Uganda. Two separate cases were recorded in 2008 among visitors to a cave in Uganda inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies.
