Specialists from the Ashanti regional directorate of the Ghana Health Service, led by Dr Joseph Oduro, are visiting Kenyase in the Kwabre West District to investigate the family of a 12-year-old girl who died of ebola-related symptoms four days ago.

The team’s investigations will also cover the local hospital where the young girl was first admitted before her transfer to the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital in Kumasi.

Emergency health measures, including possibly quarantining the family, should tests of blood samples of the deceased at the Noguchi Memorial Institute confirm ebola.

The deadly flesh-eating hemorrhagic fever has already killed scores of people in neighbouring Guinea. Cases have also been reported in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Mali. Over 90 people have died so far since the outbreak begun a few months ago. There is no known cure or vaccine for the hemorrhagic fever. It is spread by close personal contact with people who are infected and kills between 25% and 90% of victims. Symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea and vomiting.