Africa

Ghana declares first marburg virus disease outbreak as two patients die

Both cases showed symptoms including diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting and sought treatment at same hospital

Marburg case fatality rates have varied from 24 per cent to 88 per cent in past outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management, WHO said. Photograph: iStock

Janice Kew
Mon Jul 18 2022 - 13:59

Ghana announced the country’s first outbreak of Marburg virus disease after a World Health Organisation (WHO) laboratory confirmed earlier test results.

The Institut Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal, received samples from two unrelated deceased patients, the WHO said in an emailed statement. Both showed symptoms including diarrhea, fever, nausea and vomiting and sought treatment at the same hospital within days of each other. The WHO is supporting a joint national investigative team in Ghana’s Ashanti region and alerting neighboring high-risk countries.

“Health authorities have responded swiftly, getting a head start”, Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s director for Africa, said in a statement. “Without immediate and decisive action, Marburg can easily get out of hand.”

Marburg is a highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever in the same family as Ebola. It has only rarely been detected in West Africa.

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Case fatality rates have varied from 24 per cent to 88 per cent in past outbreaks, depending on virus strain and the quality of case management, the WHO said. Although there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments approved to treat the virus, supportive care of specific symptoms improves survival — Bloomberg

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