The Ministry of Health says it is on course to winning the fight against the meningitis outbreak, which was recorded in nine regions of the country this year.
According to the Ministry, all regions that were affected are now safe from the point of reaching an epidemic, as the number of cases keeps declining.
Over 2,000 cases were confirmed with 93 deaths when the disease hit uncontrollable levels early this year.
But the Ministry says no deaths have been recorded in the last four weeks.
Addressing the media, sector Minister, Alex Segbefia said “we had a situation which had reached epidemic level. As at April 13 2016, 59 districts from 9 regions have reported cases since the beginning of the year. Cumulatively, 2184 suspected cases of meningitis were confirmed with 93 deaths. Six regions in the Brong Ahafo and three in the Upper West Regions reached the epidemic threshold but these districts have responded adequately to the interventions put in place and have all come out of the epidemic phase. As at today, there is no district in the epidemic phase.”
The Ministry since the beginning of this year enhanced its surveillance in the affected regions and put in place interventions to fight the disease. According to Mr. Segbefia, these interventions have contributed immensely to curbing the virus.
“We provided additional funds, antibiotics, laboratory test kits and logistics to the regions and the districts. We conducted reactive vaccination campaigns and vaccinated 200,000 people against meningitis in three districts of the upper west region namely Jirapa Nadowli and Nandom districts. No one has died of meningitis in the past four weeks and currently, no district is in the epidemic phase. We will continue to count on everyone till we win this battle in totality. Our direction and focus is towards elimination of meningitis from our dear country.”
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By: Farida Shaibu/citifmonline.com/Ghana