Child infected with Marburg virus dies in Ghana

The variety of fatalities within the nation has risen to a few since Ghana registered its first-ever Marburg virus outbreak final month.

A virologist works in a excessive safety laboratory on the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medication in Hamburg, Germany, which researches ailments together with the Marburg virus, on January 25, 2013 [File: AFP]

A toddler who contracted the extremely infectious Ebola-like Marburg virus in Ghana has died, a World Well being Group official has mentioned.

The loss of life on Tuesday brings the full variety of fatalities within the nation to a few since Ghana registered its first-ever outbreak of the illness final month. The outbreak is just the second in West Africa, after the primary was detected final yr in Guinea.

The useless youngster, whose gender or age weren't disclosed, was one among two new circumstances reported final week by the WHO.

“Final week I discussed the 2 further circumstances. One is the spouse of the index case and the opposite one is the kid of the index case and the kid sadly died, however the spouse remains to be alive and enhancing,” WHO physician Ibrahima Soce Fall instructed reporters.

The virus is transmitted to individuals from fruit bats and spreads amongst people by direct contact with bodily fluids, surfaces and supplies, the WHO mentioned.

To date, the Ghanaian well being ministry has solely reported three confirmed circumstances and additional testing stays to be performed on a fourth suspected case, Fall mentioned.

The primary two circumstances, in southern Ghana’s Ashanti area, each had signs together with diarrhoea, fever, nausea and vomiting, earlier than dying in hospital, the WHO mentioned beforehand.