GMA urges public to help fight Marburg virus

The Ghana Medical Association (GMA) has appealed to the public to volunteer information to health authorities as the country fights to contain the Marburg virus.

Already the Ghana Health Service has revealed that two persons have been confirmed dead with 98 persons currently under quarantine.

Speaking to Citi News, the General Secretary of the Association, Dr. Titus Beyuo, says fighting the virus is a collective action, and efforts by all will help bring the menace under control.

“Locally, the contact tracing has been efficient. They’ve identified most of the people. We want to use this opportunity to appeal to other people who may be connected to this case to volunteer information so that the contact tracing can be completed.

“We are not sure of the primary source of this infection. So, because of these unanswered questions, we would ask that persons who have symptoms of fever, bleeding, bloody diarrhoea or bleeding from any part of the body other than that which is already known and expected to report to the healthcare system so that we can quickly contain the situation.”

A team of experts from the World Health Organisation is expected to be deployed to Ghana over the next couple of days to provide coordination, risk assessment, and infection prevention measures in support of ongoing investigations into the latest outbreak of the Marburg virus.

The Marburg Virus Disease is a rare but severe haemorrhagic fever that affects both humans and non-human primates.

Highest alert

Meanwhile another virus, monkeypox outbreak has been declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.

The classification is the highest alert that the WHO can issue and follows a worldwide upsurge in cases.

It came at the end of the second meeting of the WHO’s emergency committee on the virus.

More than 16,000 cases have now been reported from 75 countries, said WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

There had been five deaths so far as a result of the outbreak, he added.

There are only two other such health emergencies at present – the coronavirus pandemic and the continuing effort to eradicate polio.

Dr. Tedros said the emergency committee had been unable to reach a consensus on whether the monkeypox outbreak should be classified as a global health emergency.

However, he said the outbreak had spread around the world rapidly and he had decided that it was indeed of international concern.

Too little was understood about the new modes of transmission which had allowed it to spread, said Dr Tedros.

“The WHO’s assessment is that the risk of monkeypox is moderate globally and in all regions, except in the European region, where we assess the risk as high,” he added.

There was also a clear risk of further international spread, although the risk of interference with international traffic remained low for the moment, he said.

Dr Tedros said the declaration would help speed up the development of vaccines and the implementation of measures to limit the spread of the virus.

The WHO is also issuing recommendations which it hopes will spur countries to take action to stop transmission of the virus and protect those most at risk.

“This is an outbreak that can be stopped with the right strategies in the right groups,” Dr Tedros said.