The Ghana Health Service has put over 60 people under surveillance after a student of the Asamankese Senior High School (SHS) in the Eastern Region died of meningitis.
The death, which is the second in the Eastern Region after one at the Koforidua Secondary Technical School, brings to six the number of meningitis related deaths among students nationwide.
[contextly_sidebar id=”oDHLkQkJ8Eba4VHCk35VRTlWOsW6SJn7″]The student died after complaining of a stiff neck, fever and body pains on Sunday.
A Laboratory test conducted at the Asamankese Government Hospital confirmed he died as a result of meningitis.
The Eastern Regional Disease Control Officer, Sally Emmanuel, said all persons who came into contact with the deceased will remain under surveillance for a minimum of five days.
“As part of public health measures, we have identified people who are likely to have been infected because of their association. Currently, we are talking about records of about 65 people. Again, we are also ensuring that the person comes from a home and has visited home for sometime. Not just staff and students, but also the household where the person had visited was also reached and over there, we got people who were also close to the case and about six people are also under active surveillance to monitor them for a minimum of five days until we are sure they are not developing any symptoms of meningitis before we can let them go. ”
A preliminary report by a medical team at the Damongo District Hospital in the Northern Region this month, indicated that the death of a student at Damongo Senior High School in the West Gonja District, was caused by non-communicable meningitis.
The Eastern Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Charity Sarpong, also confirmed that a second-year science student of Koforidua Technical School, died from Meningitis.
A student of Tempane Senior High School in the Garu-Tempane district of the Upper East Region, and another from the Zuarungu SHS also in Upper East, and one from Bawku Sec. Tech. have also died from Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CMS).
These have raised concerns over a possible outbreak of the disease after a similar development at the Kumasi Academy in the Ashanti Region, although early medical reports indicate that the students were infected with H1N1 influenza Type A, after the death of four students.
The Ghana Health Service together with the World Health Organization, W.H.O, has procured and administered vaccines to students, teaching and non-teaching staff.
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By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana