The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has reported five cases of monkeypox in the country.
Dr. Kuma Aboagye, the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, made the announcement in Accra.
“We’ve screened 12 probable cases in Ghana since the outbreak in Europe began on May 24,” he said. We have confirmed five cases in three regions – Eastern, Western, and Greater Accra – where the five cases were located; no one has died as a result of the cases,” he stated.
“One of the instances was reported in a Ghanaian who traveled to the United States from Ghana; he may have picked it up here,” the GHS director noted.
Monkeypox is a rare but potentially fatal viral virus spread by direct touch with bodily fluid or monkeypox lesions.
Outside of Africa, the virus has now been found in 16 nations.
In Europe, the Americas, and Australia, more than 100 instances of the virus, which causes a rash and a fever, have been verified.
Although the number is projected to continue to climb, experts say the overall risk to the general public is quite low.
The virus is especially frequent in Central and West Africa’s rural areas.
At a news conference on Monday, the WHO’s emerging disease chief, Maria Van Kerkhove, said, “This is a containable crisis.”
“We’d like to put an end to human-to-human transmission.” She went on to say, “We can do this in non-endemic nations,” referring to recent cases in Europe and North America.
