The Western Region has not recorded any case of monkeypox, A statement signed by Dr Yaw Ofori Yeboah, regional director of health services, has said.

“The Western Region has not recorded any case of monkeypox”, the statement noted.

It explained: “An individual reported to a facility in the Ahanta West municipality in the Western Region with blisters”.

“Initial assessment of the case is not suggestive of monkeypox.  Further investigations are underway”, the statement assured.

The statement said: “The regional health directorate of the Ghana Health Service has enhanced its surveillance activities and will continue to provide the public with timely updates on this issue”

More than 80 cases have been confirmed in Europe, the US, Canada, Australia and Israel.

However, the risk to the wider public is said to be low.

Monkeypox – the virus that is most common in remote parts of Central and West Africa – does not tend to spread easily between people and the illness is usually mild.

Most people who catch the virus recover within a few weeks, according to the UK's National Health Service. 

The outbreak has taken scientists by surprise, and UK health officials have issued new advice, saying high-risk contacts of cases should self-isolate for three weeks. Belgium became the first country to announce a three-week quarantine for infected persons on Friday.

More confirmed cases are expected to be announced in the UK on Monday, the Guardian newspaper reports.

Speaking at Sunday's opening of the WHO’s World Health Assembly, Dr Tedros said: "Of course, the [Covid] pandemic is not the only crisis in our world. As we speak our colleagues around the world are responding to outbreaks of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo, monkeypox and hepatitis of unknown cause and complex humanitarian crises in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan, the Syrian Arab Republic, Ukraine and Yemen”.

"We face a formidable convergence of disease, drought, famine and war, fuelled by climate change, inequity and geopolitical rivalry," the WHO head added.

The WHO earlier said that a number of other suspected monkeypox cases were being investigated – without naming the countries involved – and warned that more infections were likely to be confirmed.