IS GHANA REALLY FREE FROM EBOLA?
Written by Abena Boakyewaa Yiadom 4th October, 2014.
Posted by Christiana Afua Nyarko
The Ebola outbreak in West Africa,which has killed more than three thousand human beings in Guinea,Liberia,Sierra Leone and Nigeria this year; has been described as the world's deadliest. As a result,the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared an international health emergency in the sub-region.
After the first travel-associated case of Ebola was diagnosed in the United States of America on the 24th of the last month, September;the question I ask is,is Ghana,a country hemmed between the four West African countries that have caught the Ebola virus,really free from the disease.
Although many ailments detected here in Ghana have initially been suspected to be Ebola,every single one of them have been diagnosed to be some other thing than Ebola. That notwithstanding;rumors of the disease are still rife along along our coastal towns where fisher-folks keep returning home from sojourns into Guinea,Liberia,and Sierra Leone without customs checks and screening.
The advance team of the Newly established UN Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) arrived in Accra late last month,to knock together a headquarters from where training of personnel and other Ebola combat activities will be waged. A deputy Minister of Health,Victor Asare Bampoe,in enumerating measures to fight the new scourge,should it erupt in Ghana; said Government is spending 7 million Ghana Cedis to get combat-ready.
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| Ebola is a very deadly viral disease |
" Indeed,we have a long way to go; and we should not pretend as if we have arrived!"
However,aside from whatever the Health Ministry and allied agencies are using the Seven Million Ghana Cedis for; I hereby proposes they take a second look at the country's security checkpoints-especially the borders close to the countries already Ebola-endemic.Ghana needs to be forewarned that having UNMEER headquarters here does not guarantee the country's immunity from Ebola.
Reports from hospitals where suspected Ebola cases were reported indicate that, doctors there run for their lives,leaving the sick to their fate,instead of taking the best care possible of them according to the dictates of their profession. The Ghana Medical Association will have to join hands with Government to educate doctors and nurses on how to handle suspected Ebola cases reported at their facilities. Indeed,we have a long way to go; and we should not pretend as if we have arrived!
Curtsey: Abena Boakyewaa Yiadom (Akan language broadcast journalists-TV Africa).
