The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has directed all its regional offices to be on high alert for the Marburg and Ebola viruses.

This comes after an outbreak of the disease was recorded in Guinea and has already claimed one life in the country. Meanwhile, Cote d’Ivoire on Saturday confirmed its first case of the Ebola virus disease.

According to the ministry of health, the case is of an 18 year-old woman who travelled to Abidjan, the Ivoirian capital from Guinea.

Marburg and Ebola viruses belong to the Filoviridae family of viruses, and are considered highly infectious.

Atiewin Mbillah-Lawson reports from Accra.