Ghana Now Has Its First Outbreak of Deadly Marburg Virus

A lethal cousin of the Ebola virus has made its option to a brand new a part of the world. This week, World Health Organization officers introduced that the African nation of Ghana is now experiencing its first documented outbreak of Marburg. At least two folks have contracted the illness to this point, each of whom have died.

Marburg is brought on by the Marburg virus, named after the German city the place one in all the primary documented outbreaks of the virus occurred in 1967—an outbreak that was sparked when lab staff have been uncovered to contaminated monkeys imported from Africa. Its normal host is the African fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus).

Both Marburg and Ebola belong to the identical filovirus household, and so they trigger very comparable signs in people. These signs initially embrace flu-like sickness, adopted by rash, vomiting, chest belly ache, and diarrhea. The an infection can then quickly change into life-threatening, inflicting inner bleeding, organ failure, and shock. Its mortality price can vary from 23% to over 90%.

Marburg has spilled over into people with much less frequency than Ebola. The largest documented outbreak of Marburg occurred in Angola between 2004 and 2005 and left over 200 useless. Ebola’s largest outbreak, primarily in West Africa, sickened round 30,000 folks and killed 11,000 from 2014 to 2016. Our higher familiarity with Ebola has allowed us to develop efficient antivirals and a vaccine in opposition to it, whereas no such particular choices exist for Marburg presently. This is the second time that Marburg has been documented in West Africa in as a few years, following a single case reported from Guinea in September 2021.

The two instances in Ghana have been unrelated to 1 one other, however each victims lived within the southern area of Ashanti. They had additionally sought care on the similar hospital inside days of one another in late June. Samples from every affected person have been examined by two labs, one in all which is affiliated with the WHO, and each confirmed the presence of Marburg.

“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,” stated Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa, in a statement.

More than 90 contacts of the sufferers have been recognized by authorities, together with well being care staff, and at the moment are being monitored.

“WHO is on the ground supporting health authorities and now that the outbreak is declared, we are marshalling more resources for the response,” stated Moeti.