Ghana reports first cases of deadly Marburg virus

What you need to know:

  • No treatment or vaccine exists for Marburg, which is almost as deadly as Ebola. Its symptoms include high fever as well as internal and external bleeding.

Two cases of the deadly Marburg virus have been identified in Ghana, the first time the Ebola-like disease has been found in the West African nation, health authorities announced Sunday.

Earlier in the month, blood samples taken from two people in the southern Ashanti region suggested the Marburg virus.

The samples were sent to the Pasteur Institute in Senegal which confirmed the diagnosis, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said.

"This is the first time Ghana has confirmed Marburg Virus Disease," said GHS head Patrick Kuma-Aboagye said in a statement.

No treatment or vaccine exists for Marburg, which is almost as deadly as Ebola. Its symptoms include high fever as well as internal and external bleeding.

A total of 98 people identified as contact cases are currently under quarantine, the GHS statement said, noting that no other cases of Marburg had yet been detected in Ghana.

The WHO said Guinea had confirmed a single case in an outbreak declared over in September 2021.

Previous outbreaks and sporadic cases of Marburg in Africa have been reported in Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, according to the World Health Organization.

The Marburg virus can spread from infected animals, including bats.

"The public is therefore advised to avoid caves inhabited by bat colonies and to cook all meat products 'thoroughly' before consumption," the Ghanaian health authorities advised.

In addition, anyone identified as having been in contact with sufferers, including medical staff, must self-isolate.

The viral illness hits sufferers suddenly, with high fever and severe headaches.

Fatality rates in confirmed cases have ranged from 24 percent to 88 percent in previous outbreaks, depending on the virus strain and case management, according to the WHO.

* * If no #mcl-market-ticker element exists, the widget inserts itself right * after this var sel = thisScript && thisScript.getAttribute("data-target"); if (sel) { var t = document.querySelector(sel); if (t) return t; } // 2) A dedicated mount element the host page provides. var el = document.getElementById(CONFIG.targetId); if (el) return el; // 3) Fallback: insert right after this script tag. el = document.createElement("div"); el.id = CONFIG.targetId; if (thisScript && thisScript.parentNode) { thisScript.parentNode.insertBefore(el, thisScript.nextSibling); } else { document.body.appendChild(el); } return el; } // ---- Data pipeline (identical logic to the standalone banner) ------------ function apiUrl(path) { if (!path) return path; if (/^https?:\/\//i.test(path)) return path; return CONFIG.apiBase + (path.charAt(0) === "/" ? "" : "/") + path; } function toNum(v) { var n = parseFloat(String(v == null ? "" : v).replace(/,/g, "")); return isFinite(n) ? n : null; } function fmtNum(v) { var n = parseFloat(String(v).replace(/,/g, "")); if (!isFinite(n)) return String(v == null ? "" : v); var d = Math.abs(n) >= 1 ? 2 : 4; return n.toLocaleString("en-US", { minimumFractionDigits: d, maximumFractionDigits: d }); } function changeClass(d) { if (d == null || Math.abs(d) < 1e-9) return "flat"; return d > 0 ? "up" : "down"; } function arrow(d) { if (d == null || Math.abs(d) < 1e-9) return "▬"; return d > 0 ? "▲" : "▼"; } async function fetchFiles(category, count) { var res = await fetch(apiUrl("/api/files?category=" + category)); if (!res.ok) throw new Error("list " + category + " " + res.status); var list = await res.json(); return Array.isArray(list) ? list.slice(0, count || 1) : []; } async function parseSheet(meta) { var res = await fetch(apiUrl(meta.url)); if (!res.ok) throw new Error("download " + res.status); var buf = await res.arrayBuffer(); var wb = XLSX.read(buf, { type: "array" }); return XLSX.utils.sheet_to_json(wb.Sheets[wb.SheetNames[0]], { defval: "" }); } function buildStocks(rows) { var items = []; rows.forEach(function (r) { var sym = r["Symbol"] || r["symbol"]; if (!sym) return; var close = toNum(r["Close"]); if (close == null) return; var prev = toNum(r["Prev Close"] || r["Previous Close"]); var delta = prev != null ? close - prev : null; var pct = (delta != null && prev) ? (delta / prev) * 100 : null; items.push({ sym: sym, val: fmtNum(close), delta: delta, pct: pct }); }); return items; } function buildForex(rows, prevRows) { var pmean = {}; (prevRows || []).forEach(function (r) { if (r["Currency"]) pmean[r["Currency"]] = toNum(r["Mean"]); }); var items = []; rows.forEach(function (r) { var cur = r["Currency"]; if (!cur) return; var mean = toNum(r["Mean"]), buy = toNum(r["Buying"]), sell = toNum(r["Selling"]); if (buy == null && sell == null && mean == null) return; var pv = pmean[cur]; var ref = mean != null ? mean : (buy != null && sell != null ? (buy + sell) / 2 : (buy != null ? buy : sell)); var delta = pv != null ? ref - pv : null; var pct = (delta != null && pv) ? (delta / pv) * 100 : null; items.push({ sym: cur, buy: buy != null ? fmtNum(buy) : "—", sell: sell != null ? fmtNum(sell) : "—", delta: delta, pct: pct }); }); var order = CONFIG.majorCurrencies; items.sort(function (a, b) { var ia = order.indexOf(a.sym), ib = order.indexOf(b.sym); if (ia === -1) ia = 999; if (ib === -1) ib = 999; if (ia !== ib) return ia - ib; return a.sym < b.sym ? -1 : 1; }); return items; } function chgHTML(it) { var cls = changeClass(it.delta); if (it.delta == null) return ''; var pctTxt = it.pct != null ? (it.pct >= 0 ? "+" : "") + it.pct.toFixed(2) + "%" : ""; return '' + arrow(it.delta) + " " + pctTxt + ""; } function stockHTML(it) { return '' + it.sym + '' + it.val + "" + chgHTML(it) + ""; } function forexHTML(it) { return '' + it.sym + "" + '' + CONFIG.labels.buy + ' ' + it.buy + ' · ' + CONFIG.labels.sell + ' ' + it.sell + "" + chgHTML(it) + ""; } function pill(t, k) { return '' + t + ""; } function render(track, stocks, forex, dateLabel) { if ((!stocks || !stocks.length) && (!forex || !forex.length)) { track.innerHTML = '
' + CONFIG.labels.unavailable + "
"; track.style.animation = "none"; return; } var parts = []; if (stocks && stocks.length) { parts.push(pill(CONFIG.labels.stocks)); stocks.forEach(function (s) { parts.push(stockHTML(s)); }); } if (forex && forex.length) { parts.push(pill(CONFIG.labels.forex, "forex")); forex.forEach(function (f) { parts.push(forexHTML(f)); }); } if (dateLabel) parts.push('' + CONFIG.labels.updated + ": " + dateLabel + ""); var content = parts.join(""); track.innerHTML = content + content; // duplicated for a seamless loop requestAnimationFrame(function () { var dur = Math.max(20, Math.round((track.scrollWidth / 2) / CONFIG.pxPerSecond)); track.style.animation = "none"; void track.offsetWidth; track.style.animation = "mcl-scroll " + dur + "s linear infinite"; }); } async function load(track) { try { var results = await Promise.allSettled([fetchFiles("hisa", 1), fetchFiles("fedha", 2)]); var stocks = [], forex = [], dateLabel = ""; if (results[0].status === "fulfilled" && results[0].value.length) { var hf = results[0].value[0]; dateLabel = hf.date || ""; stocks = buildStocks(await parseSheet(hf)); } if (results[1].status === "fulfilled" && results[1].value.length) { var ff = results[1].value; var curRows = await parseSheet(ff[0]); var prevRows = ff[1] ? await parseSheet(ff[1]) : []; forex = buildForex(curRows, prevRows); if (!dateLabel) dateLabel = ff[0].date || ""; } render(track, stocks, forex, dateLabel); } catch (e) { if (!track.querySelector(".mcl-item")) { track.innerHTML = '
' + CONFIG.labels.unavailable + "
"; track.style.animation = "none"; } } } function mountAndRun() { injectStyle(); var mount = getMount(); mount.innerHTML = '
' + '
' + CONFIG.brand + "" + '' + CONFIG.live + "
" + '
' + CONFIG.labels.unavailable + "
"; var track = mount.querySelector(".mcl-track"); function go() { load(track); setInterval(function () { load(track); }, CONFIG.refreshMs); } if (window.XLSX) { go(); return; } var sc = document.createElement("script"); sc.src = "https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/xlsx/0.18.5/xlsx.full.min.js"; sc.onload = go; sc.onerror = function () { track.innerHTML = '
' + CONFIG.labels.unavailable + "
"; }; (document.head || document.documentElement).appendChild(sc); } if (document.readyState === "loading") { document.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded", mountAndRun); } else { mountAndRun(); } })();