The announcement comes after two unrelated patients from Ghana’s southern Ashanti region, both of whom later died, tested positive for the virus.
The patients showed symptoms including diarrhoea, fever, nausea and vomiting, the WHO said, adding that more than 90 contacts were being monitored.
Marburg is a highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever from the same family as the more famous Ebola virus disease and has a fatality rate of up to 88%, according to the WHO. “The onset of the disease is sudden, with high fever, severe headache and malaise,” it states.
The virus is transmitted to humans by fruit bats and can then spread from person to person through direct contact with bodily fluids of infected people or surfaces and materials contaminated with those fluids, the WHO explained.
The World Health Organization said containment measures were being put in place and that more resources would be deployed in response to the outbreak in Ghana. The WHO also warned that “without immediate and decisive action, Marburg could easily spiral out of control”.
There are no approved vaccines or antiviral treatments for Marburg virus. However, a patient’s chances of survival can be improved with care, including oral or intravenous rehydration and treatment of specific symptoms, the WHO said.
The Ghana Health Service has urged Ghanaians to avoid mines and caves inhabited by fruit bats and to prepare all meat products well before consumption to help reduce the risk of the virus spreading. Fruit bats are the natural hosts of the Marburg virus, the health service said. The outbreak in Ghana is only the second in West Africa, after Guinea discovered the virus last year. The patient in the Guinea outbreak also died from the virus. There are no other cases confirmed by Guinean health authorities. Elsewhere in Africa, previous outbreaks have been reported in Uganda, Kenya, Angola, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The 2005 outbreak in Angola was the deadliest, killing more than 200 people.
According to the WHO, contact has been made with countries at higher risk of resurgence of the virus “and they are on high alert”.
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