Ghana announced the first outbreak of Marburg virus disease in the country after two unrelated people died on June 27 and 28. Words of a new outbreak of fatal illness caused by a viral infection have been added to public fatigue concerns from the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and recently a new case of monkeypox epidemics and polio. Ringed the alarm bell.
National doctors and public health professionals quickly sought out exposed individuals and began investigating the causes of the spread in order to contain the infection. So far, health researchers in Ghana and elsewhere in the world have said there are no signs that the virus has spread further.
What is Marburg virus disease?
Marburg was first detected in 1967. Occurrence of hemorrhagic fever occurred at the same time At the laboratories in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany, and Belgrade, in what is now Serbia. 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. The incident in Ghana last month was the first to be recorded in that country.
Marburg virus is the pathogen that causes Marburg virus disease in humans, health experts said.
According to medical experts, there are no vaccines or antiviral treatments for the disease, but hydrating patients and treating certain symptoms can increase their chances of survival.
According to WHO, the disease is clinically similar to Ebola, whose spread, symptoms and progression are caused by another virus. In the case of Marburg, fruit bats are thought to be the host of the virus, but researchers say they aren’t. Causes them illness. Researchers believe that Ebola is likely to be carried by bats and non-human primates. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.. Although it is not widespread, Marburg is fatal and case fatality rates range from 24 to 88 percent, depending on which strain of people contracts and manages the case. According to WHO Case fatality rate of Ebola It’s almost the same.
The Marburg virus can spread through direct contact with the blood, secretions, and other body fluids of infected people. According to WHO It can also spread due to contact with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding and clothing.
What are the symptoms of Marburg virus disease?
Marburg can cause severe viral hemorrhagic fever, which interferes with the ability of blood to coagulate. According to WHO, the incubation period is 2 to 21 days, and symptoms suddenly begin with high fever, severe headache, and severe nausea. Other symptoms include muscle aches, diarrhea, nausea, malaise, vomiting, feces, and other body bleeding. parts.
“The mortality rate is very high,” said Dr. John Amashi, who heads the Global Health and Infectious Diseases Research Group at the Kumasi Center for Tropical Medicine Joint Research in Kumasi, Ghana. “And there is no asymptomatic Marburg.”
Patient can Check their condition Marburg with antibody, antigen, and polymerase chain reaction tests. Health agency said..
How many cases did you have this year?
There are only two cases of Marburg virus disease this year, both reported in Ghana. Dr. Amashi said the people infected with the virus were irrelevant and were in different parts of the Ashanti region of Ghana. They both died.
He said both patients were men working on the farm. One was a 26-year-old farmer who recently went to another part of the country for work, and the other was a 56-year-old self-sufficient farmer. By contact tracing by the local government, they concluded that the man was not in the same place.
Fruit bats, known to be carriers of the virus, are common in the Ashanti region.
How does the outbreak compare to the previous one?
According to the CDC, more than 200 people died in Angola between 2004 and 2005, and more than 100 people died from the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo between 1998 and 2000. Other outbreaks in Marburg have not been associated with so many cases.
One case died in Guinea in 2021, that person died, and three out of four people who contracted the disease in Uganda in 2017. According to the CDC
Experts want to know how the two were infected with the virus in Ghana, said Dr. Francis Casolo, WHO representative.
“Current research isn’t just about contacts,” said Dr. Casolo. “We also go back to the medical records in these areas to see if there were any unusual events for the symptomatic cases, so we don’t say this is a one-off event.”
Do you need to worry?
The CDC’s office in Ghana is working with local health authorities to support testing and epidemiological investigations, said Dr. Jonathan Townner, who heads the viral host ecology section of the CDC.
According to Dr. Townner, people in the United States are not at high risk of exposure.
“At this point, it is very unlikely that any traveler will come to this country with Marburg, for example,” he said.
So far, Dr. Amashi said the public health response is appropriate and transparent. Contact between the two infected persons was monitored, especially 21 days after the deaths of the two.
