Ghana Declared Marburg Free
“Ghana is now marburg free”. This is according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS).
The declaration was made by the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Patrick Kuma Aboagye, during a press conference on September 16, 2022.
He noted that the declaration is in accordance with the guidelines of the World Health Organisation (WHO) which states that a country shall be declared Marburg free “42 days following the negative PCR test result, at a time for declaration of outbreak is over in the absence of new cases supported by evidence of active surveillance of MVD”.
The GHS said it began the countdown on August 6.
In the course of it, the Service engaged in enhanced surveillance; testing of all suspected cases; enhanced risk communication and community engagement; and clinician sensitisation.
“From August 6, twenty suspected cases were found but tested negative”, Dr Kuma Aboagye said.
He noted that suspected cases were recorded in the rest of the regions as well during the period.
Declaring the country free, he said, “On the 16th of September 2022, I, Dr Kuma Aboagye, Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, on behalf of the Minister for Health, Hon Kwaku Agyemang Manu together with our partners do hereby state that Appropriate Outbreak Response Action to Marburg Virus Disease have been implemented during the past 42 days following the last negative PCR result for the sole surviving case in line with the recommendations by the WHO and best practices.
“Ghana has therefore successfully interrupted the first Marburg Virus Disease and I hereby declare the outbreak officially over.”
The disease was detected and confrimed in a family of three in Ghana.
A 26-year-old man and his 14-month-old baby died of the disease after contracting the virus.
The man, according to the GHS, got ill on June 22, 2022, and later experienced nostrils and mouth bleeding, got admitted to a hospital on June 26, 2022, but passed on some twenty-eight hours later.
The baby was admitted to a hospital on July 17, 2022, after falling ill and died three days later.
The survivor, 24 years old, has recovered and reunited with her family.
Source: opemsuo.com/Hajara Fuseini
