Ebola outbreak in neighbouring countries

NEWS COMMENTARY DISCUSSES ALERT OF EBOLA OUTBREAK IN NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES.

At a time the deadly Coronavirus pandemic is at its peak and causing a lot of havoc in the country, news filtering in from neighbouring countries indicate that on the sideline, the deadly Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is knocking on our doors asking permission to enter.  Whether this permission is granted or not depends on how Ghanaians comport themselves. The Ghana Health Service has hinted that incidents of the Ebola disease have been recorded in neighbouring Guinea with three deaths out of seven cases. A press statement issued by the Ghana Health Service on Tuesday, February 16, 2021, advised Ghanaians to take precautionary measures against the virus by protecting themselves through the avoidance of contact with blood and fluids such as urine, saliva, sweat, faeces, vomit, breast milk and semen of people who show symptoms of the disease.

The symptoms include fever, fatigue, muscle pain, headache, and sore throat, which are followed by vomiting, diarrhoea and rash. The Ghana Health Service, the statement said, had also ordered all regional and district public health emergency committees to include the Ebola virus disease on their agenda. Additionally, regional and district health facilities, port health units at all border posts, particularly along the western border, and all landing beaches are being asked to heighten surveillance for the disease, using standard case definition.

Even though the country has not recorded any case yet, we are still in a serious situation because of the proximity between Ghana and Guinea and the movement of goods and services across these two nations. The 2014-2016 outbreak of the disease in West Africa was the largest since the virus was first discovered in 1976. The outbreak started in Guinea and then moved across the land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia. The 2018-2019 outbreak in Eastern DR Congo was highly complex with insecurity adversely affecting public health response activities.

For the benefit of those who do not know about the disease, it affects people and non- humans such as monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees. It is caused by an infection with a group of viruses within the genus Ebolavirus. The disease causes an acute illness which is often fatal if untreated.  The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and spread to humans through human-to-human transmission. The average fatality rate is about 50 percent while case-fatality rate varies from 25 percent to 90 percent in the past outbreaks. Many experts say community engagement has been key to successfully controlling the outbreaks and good outbreak control relies on applying a number of interventions namely case management, infection prevention and control practices, surveillance and contact tracing, a good laboratory service, safe and dignified burials and social mobilization.

It is important to note that the last time the disease was recorded in the country in 2018, it came from same Guinea and that is the more reason why we should be worried and disturbed and to take immediate steps to block it from entering our dear country to aggravate the terrible condition we found ourselves in at the moment.  We need to tighten security at our borders and other entering points especially along the coast of Guinea. Lessons from our previous experience should be our guiding principles. While we adopt measures to deal with the deadly Coronavirus pandemic which continues to cause a lot of misery and havoc in our dear nation, let us not lose sight of this equally dangerous disease that has no respect for human beings.

These two dreadful diseases must be given equal attention in schemes of the country’s health programs through the allocation of adequate resources to deal with these pandemics. Let us not behave as we did in the past when we lost our guards and allowed the Coronavirus disease to cross our borders and other entering points into the country through China and other places across the globe where the pandemic was widespread.

Already, there is a heavy burden on our health personnel including doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians as well as other frontline workers in the fight against the deadly Coronavirus disease.  Most of them had died in the course of their duties. Our medical facilities and equipment have been overstretched and overwhelmed and should we allow the Ebola disease to take another center stage in our national affairs, it would be dangerous and disastrous for our dear country. We are not in normal times at all and, therefore we must follow rigidly all the safety protocols in place to safeguard our lives and property.

Let us prepare against any eventuality!

By Charles Neequaye, A Journalist.