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.
