The Minister of Health, Alex Segbefia has appealed to Ghanaians to volunteer and donate blood to help save lives especially during emergency situations.
[contextly_sidebar id=”8qbiq70LXxCXuUQVPGgeTe97KCGL0PkY”]About one hundred people died in an explosion at a GOIL fuel station at the Kwame Nkrumah Circle in Accra on Wednesday.
The victims were seeking shelter at the fuel station during a heavy rain that rendered parts of the city inaccessible.
“Can I make an appeal to the whole, country, not just Accra, that the time has come that we begin to look for those who have the ability to donate blood. One of the things you need with burns is plasma and therefore anyone anywhere who can donate blood should go and do so, so that those who are living with us, will have a good chance of staying with us,” he said.
Managers of Ghana’s blood bank have complained of shortage of blood in stock.
Addressing the media after a visit to the 37 Military Hospitals, Alex Segbefia noted that the hospital currently has about 65 of the dead bodies at its morgue.
He said the 65 bodies made up of 18 women and 47 men.
“The bulk of people were brought here [37 Military Hospital and Police Hospital]. We have to find a way to get other hospitals to take some of the burden of these two hospitals because the victims are still being pull out of rabbles.”
On the people who were injured, Alex Segbefia said “we have a number of people in intensive care. I’ve been round and seen them, different degrees of burns and they’ve been spread across wards within the 37 Military Hospital. I’ve also been to the initial trauma center and people are still coming in.”
The Minister also called for preventive measures against the outbreak of Cholera adding that “the rains continue to fall a bit and because of the nature of amount of water that has flowed, we should start planning and taking preventive actions against cholera.”
Meanwhile, the 37 Military Hospital will be opened to the public at 3pm on Thursday to enable Ghanaians identify their deceased relatives.
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By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana