A health worker in protective clothing carries waste to dispose of it outside the isolation room where the victims of the deadly Marburg virus are treated in the northern Angolan city of Uige, File.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
DAKAR, July 17 (Reuters) – Ghana has officially confirmed two cases of the Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola, its health service said on Sunday, after two people who died later tested positive. virus earlier this month.
Tests in Ghana turned positive on July 10, but the results had to be verified by a Senegalese laboratory for the cases to be considered confirmed, according to the World Health Organization. Read more
“Subsequent tests at the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, have corroborated the results,” the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said in a statement.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
GHS is working to reduce any risk of the virus spreading, including isolating all identified contacts, none of which have developed any symptoms so far, he said.
This is just the second outbreak of Marburg in West Africa. The first case of a virus in the region was detected last year in Guinea, without identifying any more.
“The (Ghanaian) health authorities have responded quickly and have begun to prepare for a possible outbreak. This is good because without immediate and decisive action, Marburg can be easily out of control,” said Matshidiso Moeti, regional director of the WHO for Africa.
The two patients in the Ashanti region of southern Ghana had symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting, before dying in hospital, the WHO said.
There have been a dozen major outbreaks of Marburg since 1967, mainly in southern and eastern Africa. According to the WHO, mortality rates have ranged from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks, depending on the strain of the virus and case management.
It is transmitted to humans from fruit bats and is spread among humans through direct contact with the body fluids of infected people, surfaces and materials, according to the WHO.
Register now for FREE and unlimited access to Reuters.com
Sign up
Report by Alessandra Prentice and Nellie Peyton; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Daniel Wallis
Our standards: the principles of trust of Thomson Reuters.