GES: Marburg Contact Dies After 21-Day Quarantine

One of the three hundred and eighteen (318) contacts identified in the first Marburg cases recorded in Ghana has died after completion of the twenty-one days quarantine.

This was relayed by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GES), Dr Patrick Kuma Abaogye.

Dr Aboagye confirmed that the contact experienced the symptoms and died on July 21, 2022.

Following that, forty new contacts have been identified including patients and health workers.

He said that a test on the deceased came up positive however, further investigations are underway.

Confirmation of First Two Cases
It will be recalled that the GHS announced that two persons had died of Marburg virus disease in the Ashanti Region of Ghana with positive tests from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research on July 6.

But speaking at a Press Briefing on July 24, 2022, the GHS boss said that only one of the samples of the two cases which were sent to Dakar came out positive.

“In line with our protocol of quality assurance…we sent samples to Dakar and the results came on July 15 that one was positive and one wasn’t.”

The negative test, he said, was a case of chronic peptic ulcer.

Contacts Tracing
318 contacts were traced from four districts in three regions including the Ashanti, Savannah, and Western regions during the first set of the outbreak.

Ashanti had 50 contacts, Savannah had 48 contacts and Western 20.

It included nineteen health workers and 99 close relatives, households or community, the GHS explained.

Measures In Place
Dr Aboagye said his outfit has sent out alerts to districts in Ghana and also undertaking community engagement and risk education as well as provision of Personal Protective Equipments (PPE).

He also noted that it is undertaking contact tracing, providing training tools, and developing a national response plan.

Additionally, he said the GHS is enhancing community engagement, monitoring contacts for 42 days, offering psychological support to families, training CBSVs to undertake contact tracing, assessing environmental wildlife in affected communities, and collaborating for nationwide risk assessment.

The identified hotspots for the Marburg virus in Ghana include; Adansi North, Bekwai, Prestea Huni Valley and STK.

Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini