The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (NCDC) says it is on a high alert after the confirmation of Marburg Virus cases in Ghana.
Dr. Ifedaya Adetifa, NCDC Director-General disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday.
The outbreak which was confirmed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on Monday is the second time the deadly virus will be detected in West Africa, after it was first detected in Guinea in August 2021.
Two unrelated men aged 51 and 26 were confirmed to be infected with the virus which inflicts a rare, highly infectious disease and severe hemorrhagic fever (MVD) both in human and non-human primates like the Ebola virus. The victims reportedly died from the disease.
“Given the proximity of Ghana to Nigeria as well as the WHO alert, the NCDC-led multisectoral National Emerging Viral Haemorrhagic Diseases Working Group (EVHDWG) that coordinates preparedness efforts for MVD, and other emerging viral hemorrhagic diseases has conducted a rapid risk assessment to guide in-country preparedness activities,” NCDC Director General, Dr. Adetifa, disclosed in the statement.
“Based on available data, the overall risk of both importation of the diseases and its potential impact on the Nigerian population is said to be moderate as assessed by NCDC experts and partners given the following: the proximity (same region), high traffic from Ghana and countries that share borders with Ghana, the incubation period of 21 days of the virus, heightened surveillance at point of entry, Nigeria’s capacity to respond to the outbreak in the country and the fact that persons with MVD transmit the virus when they become symptomatic unlike for SARS-CoV-2 that causes COVID-19 that can also be transmitted by infected persons without symptoms,”
The NCDC Director General said Nigeria has the capacity to test for the disease that first emerged in 1967 after outbreaks in Marburg and Frankfurt, Germany.
Testing for the virus can currently be carried out at National Reference Laboratory in Abuja and the University of Lagos Teaching Hospital laboratory Centre for Human and Zoonotic Virology.
There is currently no cure for the disease.
