麻豆社

The director general of Ghana's Health Service has confirmed the first cases of the Marburg virus in the country. Tests on two patients who died at a hospital in the southern Ashanti region, showed that they had contracted the disease. Several people have now been placed in isolation.

The highly infectious disease, with symptoms that include high fever, body aches and bleeding, sits in the same family as Ebola. Ghana is the second country in West Africa to be affected, following a single case in Guinea last year. Director General Dr Patrick Kumah Aboagye told Focus on Africa's Bola Mosuro, the virus is one of the deadliest with a mortality rate of up to 90%.

Photo: Director General of Ghana's Health Service, Dr Patrick Kumah Aboagye. Credit: GHS Protocol.