After several negative scares and a near invincible general outlook concerning Ebola which has become a regional threat to West Africa, it seems Ghana just may have recorded her first case of Ebola!
It is reported that on Friday afternoon, a Burkinabe man, who had general symptoms of Ebola including fever, nose and ear bleeding, was taken to the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital dead on arrival. The man was brought through the border from Burkina to Ghana by his relatives who wanted proper medical care for him but he died on the way. My question? Why wasn’t he screened at the border? Is Ghana this careless?
Dr Joseph Yaw Manu, confirmed to StarrFMonline.com that the man had died at the time he was brought in, saying: “…What scared me most as a Medical Doctor is that he was bleeding from his ears and nose–symptoms of Ebola.”
Do you know what I am thinking? If it is indeed Ebola, there will be a few more cases reported in the vicinity soon because several others were exposed without protective clothing to the body of the man. Especially since it wasn’t expected. The medical personnel and the people who carried him to the hospital and anyone else who touched him or came in contact with his body somehow.
Very disturbing news for a country whose health minister instead of preparing for the health threat was saying on Friday that Ghana will never see Ebola but only hear of it in other countries.
What measures do we have in place Dr. Kwaku Agyemang (Minister of Health)? You need to school us more on what your outfit is doing to protect Ghanaians! Because I haven’t seen a single move.
Dr. Manu of the Bawku Presby hospital has since sent blood samples of the deceased for testing at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) at the University of Ghana. If Ebola has killed at least 961 people in the West African sub-region out of 1,779 total cases. Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea are among the hardest hit countries.
Although many suspected cases have been reported in Ghana, most were reported negative upon testing. And there are many rumours of the disease along coastal towns in Ghana where fishermen cross between countries without customs checks and screening.
