Ghana's health ministry verified five instances of the monkeypox virus on Wednesday (8 June).
Monkeypox is an uncommon but potentially fatal viral virus spread by direct touch with bodily fluid or monkeypox lesions.
Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the director-general of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), told the media on Wednesday that no deaths have been reported in the five instances so far.
"Since the epidemic in Europe began on May 24, we have screened 12 suspicious cases in Ghana." We have confirmed five instances 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.
Benin, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Ghana (only in animals), Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone, and South Sudan are nations where monkeypox is endemic.
The World Health Organization (WHO) claims that monkeypox may be contained in nations outside of Africa where the virus is rarely identified.
In Europe, the Americas, and Australia, more than 100 instances of the virus, which produces a rash and a fever, have been verified.
Although that number is projected to climb further, economists think the overall danger to the larger economy is 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, stated, "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 incidents in Europe and North America.
Outside of Africa, the virus has already been found in 16 nations.
Monkeypox can not travel readily between individuals, despite being the largest epidemic outside of Africa in 50 years, and specialists warn the hazard is not equivalent to the coronavirus pandemic. "Transmission occurs mostly through skin-to-skin contact, and the majority of those who have been detected have a minor condition," Ms Van Kerkhove explained.
Following prior discussion about the source of the latest outbreak, another WHO official emphasized that there was no proof the monkeypox virus had evolved.
Viruses in this category "tend not to change and are pretty stable," according to Rosamund Lewis, WHO's smallpox secretariat director.