Ghana announced the first outbreak of Marburg virus disease in the country after two people died on 27 and 28 June. Word of a new outbreak of a deadly disease caused by a viral infection added to the concerns of a weary public battling the coronavirus pandemic. , and are concerned about the recent outbreak of monkeypox and a new case of polio.
Doctors and public health experts in the country immediately began searching for anyone who had caused the outbreak in an effort to contain the infection. For now, health researchers in Ghana and other parts of the world said there was no sign that the virus had spread further.
What is Marburg virus disease?
Marburg was first detected in 1967, when an outbreak of hemorrhagic fever occurred simultaneously in laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and in Belgrade, now Serbia – cases that were linked to African green monkeys imported from Uganda . Other cases have since been found in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, according to the World Health Organization. Last month’s cases in Ghana were the first to be reported in that country.
Health experts said Marburg virus is the pathogen that causes Marburg virus disease in humans.
Medical experts said there is no vaccine or antiviral treatment for the disease, but hydrating patients and treating their specific symptoms could improve their chances of survival.
The disease is clinically similar to Ebola in its spread, symptoms and progression, although it is caused by a different virus, according to the WHO. In the case of Marburg, fruit bats are believed to be the host of the virus, although researchers To say that it is not so makes them the cause of disease. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers believe that Ebola is carried by bats or nonhuman primates. Even though it is not widely spread, Marburg has been fatal, with case fatalities ranging from 24 to 88 percent, depending on which WHO Ebola case fatality rate is roughly the same.
Marburg virus can be spread by direct contact with blood, secretions or other bodily fluids of infected people, according to the WHO it can also spread through contact with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding or clothing.
What are the symptoms of Marburg virus disease?
Marburg can cause severe viral hemorrhagic fever, which interferes with the blood’s ability to clot. The incubation period ranges from two to 21 days, and symptoms begin suddenly with high fever, severe headache and severe malaise, according to the WHO. Other symptoms include muscle pain, diarrhea, nausea, lethargy and vomiting, stools and other symptoms from the body. Bleeding may be involved. parts.
“The mortality rate is very high,” Dr. John Amusi, who leads the global health and infectious disease research group at the Kumasi Center for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine in Kumasi, Ghana. “And there is no asymptomatic Marburg.”
Health organizations said a patient can confirm his condition through antibody, antigen and polymerase chain reaction tests that he is Marburg.
How many cases have come this year?
There have been only two cases of Marburg virus disease this year, both reported in Ghana. Dr. Amusi said the people who contracted the virus were not related and were in different parts of Ghana’s Ashanti region. They both died.
He said that both the patients were men working in the fields. One was a 26-year-old farmhand who had recently moved to a different part of the country for work, and the other was a 56-year-old subsistence farmer. Contact tracing by local authorities led them to conclude that the men were not in the same place.
Fruit bats, which are known to be carriers of the virus, are common in the Ashanti region.
How does the outbreak compare to the previous ones?
More than 200 people died in Angola from 2004 to 2005, and more than 100 people died from the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 1998 to 2000, according to the CDC. are not.
According to the CDC, in 2021, there was one case in Guinea that resulted in the death of that person, and in 2017 three out of four people with the disease in Uganda also died.
Experts want to know how two people in Ghana contracted the virus, said the country’s WHO representative, Dr Francis Kasolo.
“The current investigation is not only focusing on the contacts,” Dr. Kasolo said. “We are also going back to the medical records in these areas to see if there have been unusual occurrences in terms of cases presenting with symptoms. That’s why we are holding back from saying that this is a one-time incident only.”
Should we be worried?
The CDC’s office in Ghana is working with local health officials to assist with testing and epidemiological investigations, Dr. Jonathan Towner, who leads the virus host ecology section at CDC.
Dr. Towner said people in the United States are not at high risk of exposure.
“It’s likely a very low risk at this point that there will be some travelers, for example, coming into the country with Marburg right now,” he said.
So far, Dr. Amusi said, the public health response has been fair and transparent. The contacts of the two infected people were tracked, especially in the 21 days after the death of both.
(This story has not been edited by seemayo staff and is published from a rss feed)