The World Health Organization (WHO) says it is working with Ghanaian authorities to prepare for a possible response to an outbreak of the deadly Marburg Virus Disease (MVD).
The statement by the UN health agency comes after the Ghanaians announced earlier on Thursday that it recorded two suspected cases of the virus, which preliminary test reports show are positive.
The cases were recorded in country’s southern Ashanti Region, according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
“The disease was suspected following the identification of two persons who met the case definition for an acute Haemorrhagic Fever in two different locations in the Ashanti Region,” a statement signed by the GHS Director General, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, said.
The initial tests were conducted at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research of the University of Ghana.
The samples were later shipped to Dakar in Senegal for confirmation test at the Institute Pasteur.
The Ghanaian authorities said all this happened two weeks ago, noting that no new case of the virus has been recorded since then.
As part of the response effort, 34 contacts have been identified and placed under quarantine, the authorities said.
The Marburg Virus Disease is a highly infectious viral haemorrhagic fever that affects both humans and non-human primates. The virus that causes the disease is in the same family as Ebola, which causes the Ebola Virus Disease, which ravaged West Africa between 2014 and 2016.
If the test in Dakar confirmed the samples as positive for Marburg, it would be the first cases of the viral disease in the country.
But it will be the second outbreak of the disease in the West Africa region after Guinea confirmed a single case in August 2021. Other countries in Africa that have previously recorded cases of the MVD are Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda.
Marburg is known to be transmitted to humans from fruit bats as its natural host.
In 2018, US and Sierra Leonean scientists found bats infected with the Marburg virus.
The incubation period of the virus is said to be between two and 21 days, according to WHO. Illness from MVD begins abruptly, with symptoms including high fever, severe headache and malaise.
Case fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks depending on the strain of the virus, according to scientists.
There is no vaccine or treatment approved to treat the MVD, but supportive care, including rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids, and treatment of specific symptoms, have been known to increase chances of survival.
Ghanaian authorities say the two patients, who are unrelated, are both deceased. They said they had been taken to a district hospital in the region located in the southern part of the country.
“The health authorities are on the ground investigating the situation and preparing for a possible outbreak response. We are working closely with the country to ramp up detection, track contacts, be ready to control the spread of the virus,” Dr Francis Kasolo, WHO Representative in Ghana, was quoted saying.
The global health body also said that it is deploying experts to support the Ghanaian authorities with disease surveillance, testing, contact tracing, treatment of patients and working on community awareness on the risk and dangers of contracting the disease.
