MARBURG VIRUS DISEASE: GHANA CONFIRMS
FIRST TWO CASES
The Ghana Health Service has confirmed the first cases
of the Marburg Virus Disease, a highly infectious disease in the same family as
the virus that causes Ebola.
It is only the second time the zoonotic disease has
been detected in West Africa. Guinea confirmed a single case in an outbreak
that was declared over on September 16, 2021, five weeks after the initial case
was detected
Previous outbreaks and sporadic cases of Marburg in
Africa have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Kenya, South Africa and Uganda. The WHO has reached placed neighbouring
high-risk countries on alert.
CONFIRMATION
The GHS confirmation comes after a World Health
Organisation (WHO) collaborating centre laboratory in Senegal confirmed earlier
results after two people who later died tested positive for the virus earlier
this month.
The Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal received
samples from each of the two patients from the southern Ashanti region of Ghana
– both deceased and unrelated – who showed symptoms including diarrhoea, fever,
nausea and vomiting.
The laboratory corroborated the results from the
Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, which suggested their illness
was due to the Marburg virus. One case was a 26-year-old male who checked into
a hospital on 26 June 2022 and died on 27 June. The second case was a 51
-year-old male who reported to the hospital on 28 June and died on the same
day. Both cases sought treatment at the same hospital within days of each other.
"The disease was suspected following the
identification of two persons who met the case definition for an Acute
Haemorrhagic Fever and reported in Adansi North District of Ashanti
Region," the GHS said in a statement.
"So far, 98 contacts identified including those
from Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district from Savannah Region are currently under
quarantine and being monitored by the Ashanti and Savannah Regional Health
Directorates of the Ghana Health Service. No new cases of MVD have been
identified".
The WHO in a separate statement said it was
"supporting a joint national investigative team in the Ashanti Region as
well as Ghana’s health authorities by deploying experts, making available
personal protective equipment, bolstering disease surveillance, testing,
tracing contacts and working with communities to alert and educate them about
the risks and dangers of the disease, and to collaborate with the emergency
response teams. In addition, a team of WHO experts will be deployed over the
next couple of days to provide coordination, risk assessment and infection
prevention measures".
“Health authorities have responded swiftly, getting a
head start preparing for a possible outbreak. This is good because without
immediate and decisive action, Marburg can easily get out of hand. WHO is on
the ground supporting health authorities and now that the outbreak is declared,
we are marshalling more resources for the response,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti,
WHO Regional Director for Africa.
ABOUT MARBURG
Marburg is a highly infectious viral haemorrhagic
fever in the same family as the more well-known Ebola virus disease.
Many patients develop severe haemorrhagic signs within
seven days. Case fatality rates have varied from 24% to 88% in past outbreaks
depending on virus strain and the quality of case management. Although there
are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the virus, supportive
care – rehydration with oral or intravenous fluids – and treatment of specific
symptoms, improves survival.
A range of potential treatments, including blood
products, immune therapies and drug therapies, as well as candidate vaccines
with phase 1 data are being evaluated.
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