The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has disclosed that the country is finally free from the Marburg virus disease outbreak.
According to Dr. Patrick Kuma Aboagye, the Director General of the GHS, there is no single case of the disease in the country.
Addressing the media in Accra, Dr Kuma-Aboagye said the development comes after the last negative PCR test for the sole surviving Marburg patient in Ghana.
“I, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the director general of the Ghana Health Service, on behalf of the Minister of Health Kwaku Agyeman Manu, together with our partners, do hereby state that appropriate outbreak response to Marburg disease has been implemented during the 42 days following the last negative PCR result for the sole surviving patient with a recommendation by WHO,” he said.
He added, “Ghana has therefore successfully interrupted the first Marburg virus disease outbreak and hereby declare that the outbreak is over.”
Marburg Virus Disease was confirmed in Ghana on 4th July 2022.
In a statement issued on Sunday, July 17, 2022, the GHS explained that the presence of the virus was confirmed after it ran a number of tests.
The statement, which was signed by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, read, “Following the report of the preliminary finding of two cases of Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) from the Ashanti Region on 7th July 2022, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) wishes to announce that further testing at the Institute Pasteur in Dakar (IPD), Senegal, has corroborated the results from Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research.
« The samples were sent to IPD with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) for validation in line with standard practice, this being the first time Ghana has confirmed Marburg Virus Disease”.
The statement continued: “The disease was suspected following the identification of two persons who met the case definition for an Acute Haemorrhagic Fever and reported in Adansi North District of Ashanti Region.”
The Marburg virus is in the same family as the one that causes Ebola disease.
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