Ghana has reported two possible cases of the Ebola-like Marburg virus disease, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said. If confirmed, it would mark the first such infections in the west African country,
The disease, a very infectious hemorrhagic fever in the same family as Ebola, is spread to people by fruit bats and transmitted among people through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people and surfaces, the WHO said. Marburg is potentially very harmful and deadly; case fatality rates in past outbreaks have ranged from 24% to 88%.
The WHO says a preliminary analysis of samples taken from two patients from Ghana’s southern Ashanti region — both of whom died — turned up positive, but they were forwarded for full confirmation to the Pasteur Institute in Dakar, Senegal, which works with the UN health agency.
The two patients had been taken to a local hospital with symptoms including diarrhoea, fever, nausea and vomiting, the WHO said in a statement. “Preparations for a possible outbreak response are being set up swiftly as further investigations are underway,” the WHO said, adding that it is deploying experts to support health authorities in Ghana.
Dr Tom Fletcher, an infectious disease consultant at the Royal Liverpool University hospital, told the Telegraph: “An outbreak of a filovirus such as Marburg is always a serious concern, especially in a setting that hasn’t managed outbreaks before, and when cases are diagnosed postmortem."
The WHO said that if confirmed as Marburg, the cases would mark only the second time the disease has been detected in west Africa — after Guinea confirmed a single case detected in August.
The outbreak in Guinea was declared over five weeks later. Previous Marburg outbreaks and individual cases have appeared in Angola, Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, the WHO said.
