Marburg virus cases confirmed in Ghana following deaths of two men, a lab result returned with positive results from two men, aged 26 and 51, who died last month, from the Marburg virus.

Authorities and the country’s health service, have placed people who were in contact with the two men, under isolation but has not shown any symptoms relating to the virus. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has also confirmed the cases and sent out notices to neighboring countries to be on the look out for the deadly virus.

The symptoms shared by WHO about the viras, is that it has an average 50% fatality rate within humans and causes severe viral haemorrhagic fever. Ways the virus is suspected to have spread to humans, is “transmitted by fruit bats and spreads among humans via bodily fluids and contact with materials such as bedding and clothes.”

Matshidiso Moeti, WHO chief for Africa, says “(Ghanaian) health authorities have responded swiftly, getting a head start preparing for a possible outbreak, this is good because without immediate and decisive action, Marburg can easily get out of hand.”