At a press briefing facilitated by the Ministry of Information to update the general public on emergency public health threats, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, has stressed that MVD, Monkey Pox and COVID-19 are adversely affecting the healthcare system, even though the country is also experiencing pockets of poliomyelitis, measles and yellow fever outbreaks.

He further reiterated the Service’s resolve to intensify its surveillance mechanism to facilitate, among others, the early detection and containment of the Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) to arrest any further spread. Community engagements and public health education, development of a response plan, the establishment of a rapid response team, the provision of more personal protective equipment and other logistics, the development of training tools and educational materials and the training of community-based volunteers and supervisors for intense surveillance are some of the measures that have been put in place.

MDV outbreak

Ghana recorded an outbreak of the life-threatening Marburg virus for the first time earlier this year, according to the Ghana Health Service. The first ever patient, a 26-year-old man, died one day after checking into a hospital on June 26. The other, a 51-year-old man, died June 28, the same day he checked in same hospital in Ashanti region. At least 90 people were deemed suspected contacts and were quarantined.

The outbreak comes a little less than a year after neighboring Guinea confirmed its own outbreak, which featured a single case and was declared over in September 2021.

Monkeypox

The total confirmed cases of the monkeypox outbreak in Ghana is now 34 with the cases recorded in six regions. More than 50 percent of cases are in the Greater Accra Region.

The monkeypox outbreak was Saturday (July 23, 2022) declared a global Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) by the World Health Organization (WHO).