54 minutes ago
Thomas Naadi BBC News, Accra
Photo credit, Getty Images
Marburg virus was first detected in the city of Marburg in Germany in 1967.
Ghana’s health authorities have released 39 out of 98 people who had been placed in isolation after coming into contact with one of the two people who recently died after contracting the Marburg virus.
The people who returned home had completed the 21-day isolation period and had no symptoms.
The country will wait 42 days with no new cases before declaring the outbreak over. But this period will not begin until the second of the two deceased men has been buried.
Concerns have been raised about the way the two patients were cared for by medical staff in terms of infection prevention and control, which could have exposed them and others to the disease.
Late last month, two men presented to Adansi North District Hospital in Ashanti Region with symptoms of acute haemorrhagic fever. They died shortly after admission.
Ghana announced an outbreak of the virus 10 days after the two cases were confirmed by a WHO partner laboratory, the Pasteur Institute, in Senegal.
Contact tracing and strict infection control measures have been put in place to prevent further deaths.
Teams are also visiting communities to raise awareness of symptoms and ensure they alert health authorities if suspected cases arise.
This is the second time that the Marburg virus has been identified in West Africa. Last year, a case was confirmed in Guinea, but the outbreak was declared over in September, five weeks after the case was discovered.