A suspected case of the deadly Ebola disease is being investigated at the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital (KATH) in Kumasi.
Ghana’s second largest referral facility, further heightening the fear that the contagious viral hemorrhagic fever is spreading in West Africa.
The authorities at the hospital told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) on Sunday that if confirmed, it would be the first ever reported case in the country.
The victim, a child, was said to have been brought down from Mali and admitted at the emergency section of the facility’s paediatric unit but died later.
Details about the age, sex and time of admission of the victim have been scanty.
Dr Dennis Odai Laryea, the officer in-charge of Public Health at the hospital, however, confirmed to the GNA that, “we have had a case of haemorrhagic fever and we are investigating.”
He gave the assurance that the facility would go public on its findings.
Since the outbreak of the deadly strain in Guinea in January, the disease has claimed around 90 lives and is known to have travelled to Sierra-Leone, Liberia and Mali.
This is sending shock waves and making health authorities across the sub-region panic since there is no known cure yet for Ebola which causes fever and severe bleeding.
The disease, according to epidemiologists, is transmitted by contact with fluids of infected people and animals.
Source: GNA