he Ghana Health Service (GHS) has confirmed the country’s first-ever outbreak of the Marburg virus disease.
The development was announced in a statement issued on Sunday.
According to the statement, two deaths have been recorded, while at least 98 contacts have been traced and quarantined.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies the Marburg virus as one that causes fever as experienced by persons who contract Ebola.
According to the WHO, “Marburg is a highly infectious viral haemorrhagic fever in the same family as the more well-known Ebola virus disease”.
In a statement on the development, the WHO added that the two persons confirmed to have died after contracting the Marburg virus, had reported at the same hospital.
“The Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal, received samples from each of the two patients from the southern Ashanti region of Ghana – both deceased and unrelated – who showed symptoms including diarrhoea, fever, nausea and vomiting,” the statement reads.
