On 17 July, Ghana confirmed its first two cases of the deadly Marburg virus, a highly infectious disease of the same family as the virus that causes Ebola. The two cases were discovered in early July and both patients died in hospital in the southern Ashanti region. Health officials announced that 98 people are now quarantined as suspected cases and that they are intensifying efforts to prevent the outbreak from spreading. WHO expressed concern about the detection of Marburg, which, like Ebola, is a highly contagious haemorrhagic fever. This is the second time the Marburg virus has been identified in West Africa. A case was confirmed in Guinea in August 2021, but the outbreak was declared over in September, five weeks after the case was identified.