Emergency preparations are underway in Ghana for a potential outbreak of the deadly Marburg disease after two people were reported to have died from infection.
Similar to Ebola, the highly contagious virus kills about 88 per cent of people it infects, causing uncontrollable bleeding from the eyes and nose, a breakdown of the central nervous system and death in about nine days.
Health officials warned the pathogen could be the next public threat, with the World Health Organisation describing it as “epidemic-prone,” meaning it can spread easily between people if not prevented.
Two recorded cases in Accra were unrelated, meaning one did not infect the other. The people affected were taken to a district hospital in the Ashanti region after showing symptoms of diarrhoea, fever, nausea and vomiting.
Authorities are escalating plans to prepare for a possible outbreak on a wider scale, once samples from the two patients are further analysed at the Institut Pasteur in Senegal, a WHO Collaborating Centre.
A further case of Marburg was recorded in South Africa in a person with recent travel history to Zimbabwe.
Human infection usually occurs following prolonged exposure to caves or mines inhabited by colonies of the Rousettus bat. Transmission spreads through humans via direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people, and via surfaces and materials such as contaminated clothing or bedding. Symptoms usually appear quickly, with high fever, severe headache, muscle aches, stomach cramps nausea and vomiting by day three. Patients often take on a ghostlike appearance with drawn features and an expressionless face before spontaneous bleeding occurs.
