Ghana has recorded two suspected cases of the Marburg virus disease, the Ghana Health Service has disclosed.
The Ghana Health Service in a statement the two persons met the case definition of acute hemorrhage fever in two different locations in the Ashanti region.
Their blood samples were taken to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for a test.
Preliminary results from the test have shown that the infections the two individuals suffered were due to the Marburg virus disease.
The samples have been sent for confirmation at the Institute Pasteur in Dakar, Senegal with the support of the World Health Organization, the GHS added.
It further revealed no new case has been recorded aside from the two.
Marburg virus disease is a highly virulent disease that causes haemorrhagic fever, with a fatality ratio of up to 88%.
According to the World Health Organization, the virus is in the same family as the virus that causes the Ebola virus disease.
Two large outbreaks that occurred simultaneously in Marburg and Frankfurt in Germany, and Belgrade, Serbia, in 1967, led to the initial recognition of the disease.
Human infection with Marburg virus disease initially results from prolonged exposure to mines or caves inhabited by Rousettus bat colonies.
Once an individual is infected with the virus, Marburg can spread through human-to-human transmission via direct contact (through broken skin or mucous membranes) with the blood, secretions, organs, or other bodily fluids of infected people, and with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.
By: Rainbowradioonline.com/Ghana
