The World Health Organization reported that two cases of the Marburg virus have probably been detected in Ghana. Infected died. If this information is confirmed, these will be the first infections with this pathogen in Ghana. Marburg is on the list of viruses with potential epidemic potential.
- The Marburg virus is believed to be responsible for the two deaths in Ghana
- It is a pathogen that causes hemorrhagic fever, similar to e.g. Ebola
- According to WHO, Marburg may have an epidemic potential, and therefore get out of control, just like the coronavirus
- More current information can be found on the Onet homepage.
Preliminary analysis: it’s the Marburg virus
Preliminary analysis of samples taken from two patients by a laboratory in Ghana showed the presence of the Marburg virus, according to the WHO release on Thursday. It added that the samples were sent to a WHO-collaborating institute of biomedical science in Senegal, where they will be further tested.
The deceased patients, from the Ashanti region of central Ghana, exhibited symptoms such as diarrhea, fever, nausea, and vomiting. Both cases were not related to each other.
“The medical authorities on site are investigating the case and preparing for a possible outbreak of infection,” said the WHO representative in Ghana, Francis Kasolo.
How is Marburg virus transmitted?
Marburg virus infection occurs through direct contact with infected persons, surfaces or materials. The first symptoms are, inter alia, high fever, chronic headache and malaise. The virus attacks all major organs and tissues. It causes fever up to 40 degrees Celsius and internal and external bleeding.
The virus is not very contagious, but tens of percent die. infected people. In previous Marburg virus outbreaks, the death rate has ranged from 24 percent to 88 percent.
There are no approved vaccines or medications against the disease caused by the virus. Oral or intravenous hydration and management of individual symptoms increases the chances of survival.
Previous outbreaks and isolated cases of Marburg virus infections in Africa have been registered in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, and also in Uganda, the WHO notes. If the infections in Ghana are confirmed, it will be the second documented detection of the virus in West Africa.
The virus takes its name from the German city of Marburg, where it was discovered in 1967; the staff of the laboratory there then contracted monkeys imported from Uganda. The biggest outbreak of the disease took place in 2005 in Angola, when 374 people became infected and 329 died. (PAP)
jmz/ adj/ ap/
We encourage you to listen to the latest episode of the RESET podcast. This time, Dr. Agnieszka Bolikowska – the founder of Linguistics, creator of the 6oMethod® method, will tell us about what slow learning is. How to break the language barrier? How to learn to make mistakes? You will learn about this and other aspects of language learning in today’s episode. Listen!