WHO team assist Ghana to investigate outbreak of Marburg virus

A team of experts from the World Health Organisation will 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.

This comes on the back of the Ghana Health service confirming the first cases of Marburg virus disease.

The confirmation comes after a World Health Organization collaborating centre laboratory, the institute Pasteur in Dakar-Senegal confirmed the results after two people died in the Ashanti Region.

In a statement confirming the news, the Ghana Health Service said the disease was suspected following the identification of two persons who sought treatment at the same hospital.

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 that reported to the hospital on 28 June and died on the same day.

According to the Ghana Health Service, 98 contacts so far identified, including those from Sawla-Tuna-Kalba district from the Savannah Region, are currently under quarantine and are being monitored by the Ashanti and Savannah Regional Health Directorates of the Service.

About the Virus

Marburg virus is the causative agent of Marburg virus disease (MVD), a disease with a case fatality ratio of up to 88%, but can be much lower with good patient care.

Marburg virus disease was initially detected in 1967 after simultaneous outbreaks in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany; and in Belgrade, Serbia.

Marburg and Ebola viruses are both members of the Filoviridae family (filovirus). Though caused by different viruses, the two diseases are clinically similar. Both diseases are rare and have the capacity to cause outbreaks with high fatality rates.

Two large outbreaks that occurred simultaneously in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and in Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, led to the initial recognition of the disease. The outbreak was associated with laboratory work using African green monkeys (Cercopithecus aethiops) imported from Uganda.

Subsequently, outbreaks and sporadic cases have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa (in a person with recent travel history to Zimbabwe) and Uganda. In 2008, two independent cases were reported in travellers who had visited a cave inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies in Uganda.