Marburg virus: another person confirmed dead in Ghana.

Forty more people are being isolated in the Savannah region after one more death from the Marburg virus.

On Thursday, July 21, the person passed away. He is reportedly related to one of the two victims of the illness in June.

Days after presenting to the hospital with hemorrhagic fever, the two patients passed away.

He manifested symptoms of the Marburg virus days after the allotted incubation time, according to the Ghana Health Service (GHS).

Initial tests, according to Ghana Health Director-General Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, came out positive.

“Unfortunately, one close contact reported symptoms after the maximum 21-days incubation period and died on the July 21. These are very close relatives, so we have taken samples and we are following up on them.”

So because of that, their initial test have come out positive because of. their close contact and we have identified additional 40 contacts where the incident occurred so we are still monitoring.”

In the meantime, the GHS has disclosed that 50 of the 98 people who were found to be contacts in the first two cases have been released.

Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, the GHS’s director of public health, revealed this in a JoyNews interview.

He claimed that the 50 have finished the required 21-day incubation period.

“As far as we are concerned we have been able to identify 98 contacts, that is not all the contacts. Because if you look at the trajectory it’s been like 34, we’ve gone to 63 and now 98. I’m sure we’ll still get more contacts, so don’t get surprised when we get more contacts tomorrow because we’re exploring to be sure that where did these people go so that we can be able to establish…but for now we have 98.

“Of the 98, 50 are from the Ashanti Region and 48 are from Sawla-Tuna-Kalba. So the 50 from Ashanti based on our 21-day incubation period they have recovered. So you can say that they have been discharged. So now we’re looking at the 48 in Sawla-Tuna-Kalba. So that is the status now, and I think that we will continue to monitor to be sure that we don’t miss any possible contacts because that may be a source of transmission,” he said.