WEEKLY BULLETIN ON OUTBREAKS
AND OTHER EMERGENCIES
Week 38: 12 - 18 September 2022
Data as reported by: 17:00; 18 September 2022
...
Marburg Virus Ghana
3 cases
2 Deaths
66.7% CFR
EVENT DESCRIPTION
Ghana declared its first ever Marburg Virus Disease (MVD)
outbreak on 7 July 2022. The first reported case in the country
was a 26-year-old male who resided in Adansi North District of
the Ashanti Region. He presented at a hospital on 26 June 2022
with history of vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, fever, chills, general
malaise, dysuria, bleeding from the nose and mouth, and swelling
of the eyes with subconjunctival bleeding.
He was diagnosed as a case of upper gastrointestinal bleed (to
rule out Viral Haemorrhagic Fever) and managed accordingly
and died on 27 June. This case-patient was a farm labourer who
had arrived from Bogoso (Western Region) on 24 June prior
to onset of symptoms. He had no history of contact with dead
animals, sick persons or animals and had not attended any social
gathering within three weeks of symptoms onset. The body was
released to family and was buried the traditional way.
The other two cases were relatives of the initial case including
the patient’s 1-year-old son reported on 17 July 2022 who died,
and 24-year-old wife reported on 21 July 2022 who survived
her illness. Separately, another patient presenting with similar
symptoms was suspected to have MVD however this individual
was later found to have tested negative for the virus. All other
patients were laboratory confirmed for MVD at the Noguchi
Memorial Institute for Medical Research and verified by the
Institute Pasteur of Dakar.
Overall, 198 contacts were identified from the cases and only
one reported symptoms. Contact were traced from four districts
Adansi North, Adansi South, Prestea Huni Valley, and SawlaTuna-Kalb
of the Ashanti, Savannah, and West Regions of Ghana
for which patients had exposure. All contacts were discharged
from their monitoring period.
After 42 days after the last case was reported, the Ministry of
Health of Ghana declared the outbreak over on 16 September
2022. The outbreak was also the second one reported in
West Africa following the MVD outbreak in Guinea ending in
September 2021 when one case was reported. Sporadic cases
have been reported in other regions of Africa including Angola,
the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and
Uganda.
PUBLIC HEALTH ACTIONS
Ghana’s National Public Health Emergency Operations Centre
was activated and planned and implemented the response
measures in collaboration with partners.
National support teams were deployed to the affected regions
to provide the necessary support to ensure containment of
the outbreak.
Surveillance activities were implemented including
epidemiological investigation and contact follow up.
Sensitization activities of health care workers on case
definition and infection prevention were carried out.
Ongoing public education and engagements on MVD will be
maintained while the health authorities continuously review
the situation.
The Ministry of health with support from partners initiated
a process for socio-ecological mapping to assess the risk
of viral haemorrhagic fevers for enhanced surveillance in
Ghana.
SITUATION INTERPRETATION
Following roughly two months, Ghana has officially declared over
its Marburg Virus Disease outbreak. Ultimately, only one family
was affected by the outbreak with two succumbing to their illness
demonstrating that high fatality risks faced with MVD infection. A
vigorous investigation and response program including tracing
of almost 200 contacts has contributed to the closure of the
outbreak in a relatively swift manner. However, research must
still be conducted on identifying potential sources of infection by
the initial patient who seemingly did not have contact with the
common methods of disease exposure. Further work is being
conducted among the population to prevent future infections.
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/363154/OEW38-1218082022.pdf
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