Ghana may now have recorded her first Ebola case. Reports say a Burkinabe man, who had fever and bled from his nose and ears was rushed to Bawku Presby Hospital in the Upper East Region from Burkina Faso Friday afternoon.
The man had come down with a fever while in neighbouring Burkina Faso and was taken to a hospital for treatment in that country but saw no improvement in his condition. His relatives then decided to transport him across the common border between Burkina Faso and Ghana’s Upper East region, for proper care. But he died on the way.
The Medical Director at the hospital, Dr Joseph Yaw Manu, confirmed to StarrFMonline.com that the man had died at the time he was brought in, saying:
What scared me most as a medical doctor is that he was bleeding from his ears and nose– symptoms of Ebola.
On Dr Manu’s orders, blood samples from the deceased have been taken to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) at the University of Ghana for testing. If positive, this would be Ghana’s first confirmed case of the virus, which has killed at least 961 people in the West African sub-region out of 1,779 total cases. Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are among the hardest hit countries.