The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has issued an Ebola virus disease alert.
The alert follows the confirmation of Ebola cases recently in Guinea. On February 14, 2021, Guinea recorded seven cases of the Ebola virus. Three persons have died in Guinea this year as a result of Ebola virus .
In a letter signed by its Director General, Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, alerting all regional, district and local health directors to be on high alert for the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD), GHS said “EVD is a severe, often fatal illness in humans caused by the Ebola virus. The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spreads in the human population through human-to-human transmission. It can be transmitted through contact with body fluids of a person infected with the virus.”
As a result, the Health Service has also directed all regions, districts and health facilities to initiate preparedness and response plans of EVD.
“All Regional and District Public Health Emergency Management Committees should include EVD on their agenda. Additionally, regions, districts, health facilities, port health units at all border posts particularly along the Western border and all landing beaches are to heighten surveillance for EVD using the standard case definition. They are also requested to remind all Ghanaians and residents in Ghana on the need to protect themselves from the disease,” according to the letter.
In the letter, GHS outlined the Ebola preventive measures as follows:
• Avoid contact with blood and body fluids of people who show any of the Ebola symptoms
• Practice hand hygiene: frequent handwashing with soap and under running water or use an alcohol-based hand sanitiser
• Do not handle items that may have come in contact with an infected person’s blood or body fluids
• Avoid contact with dead bodies, including participating in funeral or burial rituals of suspected or confirmed Ebola cases
• Avoid contact with animals or with raw or undercooked meat
• Do not handle bushmeat
• Seek medical care immediately if one develops a fever (body temperature 38°C or above) or other symptoms such as severe headache, fatigue, muscle pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, stomach pain, or unexplained bleeding or bruising
About Ebola in West Africa
The Ebola virus disease first outbreak in West Africa occurred on December 26, 2013.
The outbreak in West Africa at the time was then the most widespread outbreak of Ebola virus disease in history. It caused socioeconomic disruption in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and led to the death of some 11,323 persons in those three countries.
Below is the letter from GHS
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