The Nigerian Centre for Disease Control -NCDC, has declared a high alert after the detection of Marburg virus cases in Ghana.
In a statement, the NCDC announced that Nigeria has the human, technical and laboratory resources for prompt identification and management in case of any single imported case. NCDC had also said that their trained professionals have been placed on standby and that surveillance had been increased.
The agency further added there was a capable testing capacity with at least two laboratories in Lagos and Abuja. This was to detect and manage any imported cases plus to also respond to any outbreak of the disease because of the proximity of Nigeria and Ghana and the movement of people in both countries.
NCDC had said that so far, there was yet to be a case of the Marburg virus in Nigeria – which is the most populous country in Africa.
According to the disease control agency, the overall risk of importation of the virus and its effect was moderate, and that measures to prevent any outbreak had been taken and put in place.
Ghana had confirmed two cases of the deadly and highly infectious Marburg disease which comes from the same family as the Ebola virus. Both patients with the Marburg virus in Ghana died recently at a hospital in the southern Ashanti region.
