HEALTH ALERT! EBOLA IS BACK!
The Ghana
Health Service (GHS) says it has received a health alert from the Democratic
Republic of Congo on Ebola outbreak.
The Service is, therefore, calling on the public to be
cautious of their health and revive all known preventive measures to avert any
possible outbreak in Ghana.
Nigeria has already stepped up screening processes at
this entry points including major international airports in the country to
ensure no outbreak is recorded.
Dr Antony Nsiah Asare, Director General of the GHS, who
confirmed receiving an alert form the World Health Organisation (WHO) added the
country is putting all its surveillance in place.
“We are also on a high alert; the ports, border
officers as well as all the districts have been alerted to look out for the
signs and symptoms of the virus,” he said.
An Ebola outbreak has been declared in the north-west
of the Democratic Republic Congo.
There have been two confirmed cases of the virus and 17
deaths, the health ministry said on Tuesday.
The incident in the town of Bikoro comes more than a
year after an outbreak in the country killed four people.
In 2014, more than 11,000 people were killed in Guinea,
Sierra Leone and Liberia.
The outbreak declaration was made after laboratory
results confirmed two cases of Ebola out of a sample of five suspected
patients, WHO said.
This is the ninth time an Ebola outbreak has been
recorded in DR Congo. The virus was first discovered there in 1976 (when the
country was known as Zaire) and is named after the Ebola river.
Ebola is thought to be spread over long distances by
fruit bats and is often transmitted to humans via contaminated bushmeat .
The GHS Director said the Service will continue to
educate the public about the early signs which include fever, headache, muscle
pain and chills as well as later symptoms where a person may experience
internal bleeding resulting in vomiting or coughing blood.
He said in as much as Ghana has the means to contain it
should an outbreak be reported, the world is continuously becoming a global
village so no one can take a chance and say it is far away.
Dr Nsiah Asare said officers at the airport have been
alerted to thoroughly check citizens from DR Congo, so the disease is not
imported into Ghana.
-Myjoyonline
http://www.feednowgh.tk/2018/05/health-alert-ebola-is-back.html
http://www.feednowgh.tk/2018/05/health-alert-ebola-is-back.html
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