The Ghana Health Service (GHS) declared an end of the Marburg virus disease (MVD) outbreak in the country Friday.
“Ghana has therefore successfully interrupted the first MVD outbreak and I declare the outbreak officially over,” Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General of the GHS, said at a press briefing attended by the World Health Organization (WHO) officials.
Kuma-Aboagye said Ghana had implemented appropriate response actions to MVD in line with WHO recommendations and would take all necessary measures to prevent a recurrence or any future outbreaks.
The successful containment of the MVD outbreak showed a resilient disease response system with support from the WHO, the West Africa Health Organization and others, he added.
Francis Chisaka Kasolo, the Country Representative for WHO Ghana, lauded the West African country for the prompt manner it reported the outbreak and for ensuring that the disease did not spread beyond its borders.
“While we declare this outbreak over, we still need to continue with the enhanced surveillance, review the response to draw critical lessons, and work on building our capacity for future emergencies,” said Kasolo.
The country reported three positive MVD cases in all during the outbreak with two deaths and one recovery.
