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WHO: Two test positive in Ghana for highly infectious Marburg virus
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday (July 7), two people in Ghana who later died tested positive for Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease similar to Ebola.
The WHO said in a statement, tests conducted in Ghana came back positive, but those results must be confirmed by a laboratory in Senegal for the cases to be considered confirmed.
The statement said, the two patients in the southern Ashanti region both had symptoms including diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting, before dying in hospital.
If the cases are confirmed, this would be only the second outbreak of Marburg in West Africa. The first ever case of the virus was detected last year in Guinea, with no further cases identified.
The WHO said: “Preparations for a possible outbreak response are being set up swiftly as further investigations are underway.”
According to the WHO, there have been a dozen major Marburg outbreaks since 1967, mostly in southern and eastern Africa. Fatality rates have varied from 24 percent to 88 percent in past outbreaks depending on the virus strain and case management.
Marburg virus disease is a highly virulent disease that causes haemorrhagic fever It is in the same family as the virus that causes Ebola virus disease.
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Human infection with Marburg virus disease initially results from prolonged exposure to mines or caves inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies, the WHO mentioned.
Once an individual is infected with the virus, Marburg can spread through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids, it added.
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