Public Health Consultant Calls for Stepping Up of Surveillance and Screening of People to Check Cross Border Disease Transmissions

Public Health Consultant and former Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Health,  Dr. Kofi Ahmed, says the only way to stop the deadly Ebola virus from hitting the country is for government to step up its surveillance activities alongside proper screening of persons entering the country through its borders. 

Speaking on the Current Affairs Programme 'Focus' on Radio Ghana, Dr. Ahmed said blanket banning of handshakes, as some churches are doing and asking people to stay away from bush meat cannot completely prevent the contraction of Ebola. 

The programme looked at the twin-problem of Ebola and cholera which are two public health issues causing havoc in Ghana and parts of West Africa. 

Dr. Ahmed did not mince words in his call on the authorities to sanction polluters of the environment and persons who disregard sanitation laws as part of measures to handle the cholera spread. 

Dr Franklin Asiefu-Bekoe, a Public Health Specialist with the Ghana Health Service said people should not bank all their hopes on the experimental drug "Z-MAPP" which is said to control the ebola disease because clinical trials are still in their early days and could take some time to sanction its use. 

He said the sensible thing for now is for people with suspected ebola symptoms to quickly report at a health facility for diagnosis because not everybody with Ebola dies. 

Also on the programme was the Vice Board Chair of the Coalition of NGO's in health, Madam Cecilia Senoo. 

Madam Senoo said the spread of Ebola in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea is enough warning to Ghanaians to eschew complacency because these Ebola endemic countries are not far-off from Ghana. 

Those were views of panelists on Radio Ghana's Current Affairs Programme "Focus" which extensively highlighted the twin-problem of Ebola and cholera.
Source: GBC