No more Marburg in Ghana is good news but don’t let your guard down

 

It is good news that Ghana no longer has Marburg cases, a Public Health Expert at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Dr Banda Khalifa, has said.

Dr Banda Khalifa however said authorities must not let their guard down. Rather, he said they should scale up surveillance.

The only survivor of the three persons infected with the Marburg virus has since recovered from the disease following two negative tests carried out 48 hours apart on the 3rd and 6th of August 2022 respectively, by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), the Ghana Heath Service (GHS) has announced in a statement.

The patient has since been discharged and reunited with her family, the GHS said.

“Ghana, therefore, has no case of MVD. The Ghana Health Service, as part of our continuous efforts at keeping the Ghanaian population updated on all public health emergencies, presents this update on the current situation of the Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) outbreak in the country,” the GHS statement said.

Reacting to this, Dr Banda said “It is good news but we should let our guard downs. we are supposed increase surveillance for at least forty two days after the last persons tested negative twice.”