Lifestyle

First-Ever Suspected Case of Marburg Virus Reported in Ghana

BY Lynnet Okumu · July 8, 2022 12:07 pm

KEY POINTS

Marburg is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces, and materials.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

There is no specific treatment for Marburg virus disease. Supportive hospital therapy should be utilized, which includes balancing the patient's fluids and electrolytes, maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure, replacing lost blood and clotting factors, and treatment for any complicating infections.

Ghana has announced two preliminary findings of the Marburg virus, a highly infectious viral hemorrhagic fever in the same family as the Ebola virus disease.

If confirmed, it will mark the first record of such a virus in the country. The two patients from the southern Ashanti region, both deceased and unrelated – showed symptoms including diarrhea, fever, nausea, and vomiting at a district hospital in the Ashanti region.

Also, if the cases turn out positive in Ghana, then it would mark the second time Marburg has been detected in West Africa.

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Previously reported cases

On 16 September 2021, Guinea had an outbreak of the same and confirmed a single case of the virus.

Other outbreaks and sporadic cases of Marburg in Africa have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa, and Uganda.

Transmission

Marburg is transmitted to people from fruit bats and spreads among humans through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, surfaces, and materials.

Symptoms

Illness begins abruptly, with high fever, severe headache, and malaise. Around the fifth day after the onset of symptoms, a maculopapular rash, most prominent on the trunk (chest, back, stomach), may occur for most patients.

Nausea, vomiting, chest pain, a sore throat, abdominal pain, and diarrhea may appear. Symptoms become increasingly severe and can include jaundice, inflammation of the pancreas, severe weight loss, delirium, shock, liver failure, massive hemorrhaging, and multi-organ dysfunction.

Case fatality rates have varied from 24 percent to 88 percent in past outbreaks depending on virus strain and case management.

Treatment

There is no specific treatment for Marburg virus disease. Supportive hospital therapy should be utilized, which includes balancing the patient’s fluids and electrolytes, maintaining oxygen status and blood pressure, replacing lost blood and clotting factors, and treatment for any complicating infections.

A range of potential treatments, including blood products, immune therapies, and drug therapies, are being evaluated.