Kunbuor assures Ghanaians

Page 15, March 16, 2010
Story: Emmanuel Adu-Gyamerah

THE Minister of Health, Dr Benjamin Kunbuor has assured Ghanaians that the ministry has taken enough measures to manage the CSM epidemic and deaths in the three northern regions.
He told Parliament last week that selective preventive vaccination with A & C vaccines was being administered even though the World Health Organisation (WHO) did not recommend preventive vaccination.
He explained that each year the Ministry of Health (MOH) procures reasonable quantities of A&C vaccines for the communities at high risk in the belt, adding that this year alone the ministry supplied 380,000 doses of the vaccine to the three northern regions.
Dr Kunbuor who was answering an urgent question filed by the Member of Parliament (MP) for Manhyia, Dr Matthew Opoku-Prempeh stated that the MOH had also mounted surveillance for the early detection of the cases.
Again, he said health workers were trained each year while drugs were procured for use in the three northern regions.
On public education, Dr Kunbuor said that before and during the season, that is from October to April, intensive public education was mounted through the mass media, community durbars and one-on-one messages to educate the public on the disease.
He advised people with signs and symptoms of the disease such as fever, headache, neck stiffness, vomiting, among others to report to the nearest health facilities while overcrowding should be avoided since the disease spreads very fast under such conditions.
The health minister also called on Ghanaians to sleep in well-ventilated rooms in addition to drinking enough water.
Mr Kunbuor explained that this year, the disease started in only one district in the Upper West Region adding that another district in the Upper East Region was currently reporting cases of the epidemic.
He indicated that mass vaccination was currently ongoing while the effect of the disease was stabilising.