{"id":8878,"date":"2014-03-26T16:25:38","date_gmt":"2014-03-26T16:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=8878"},"modified":"2014-03-26T16:54:05","modified_gmt":"2014-03-26T16:54:05","slug":"ghana-mps-issue-ebola-alert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=8878","title":{"rendered":"Ghana MPs issue ebola alert!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"MPS\"<\/a>Ghana\u2019s lawmakers have called for an \u201curgent\u201d national preparation to forestall possible outbreak<\/span> of the deadly Ebola virus in the country.<\/p>\n

It follows a wave of fatal outbreaks of the virulent disease in neighboring Guinea and Liberia, where health workers have been battling to contain the virus since Monday.<\/p>\n

At Wednesday\u2019s sitting of the 275-Member Ghanaian Legislature, a former Minister for Health, Joseph Yieleh Chireh, read a pressing statement, calling for an \u201curgent meeting between the Ministers of Health, Interior, Foreign Affairs and the National Security Coordinator to discuss the Ebola outbreak that threatens our borders\u201d.<\/p>\n

That meeting \u2013\u2013 the Wa<\/span><\/span> West MP told the House \u2013\u2013\u2013 must also \u201cpropose measures to contain\u201d the disease \u201cin the event of the outbreak here\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cFurther, I recommend that an inter-agency taskforce<\/span><\/span> be set up, consisting of relevant institutions under these three ministries and the National Security,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Mr. Chireh<\/span><\/span> said, \u201cWe must not wait until the disease gets here before we act! The time to act is now\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added that the Ministry of Health, through the Public Health Division of the Ghana Health Service, must also monitor and regularly update the \u201cInter-Agency Taskforce on reports from particularly the entry points and border areas\u201d.<\/p>\n

He also recommended that \u201cThe Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the Taskforce, takes steps to stock the relevant medicines and prepare emergency teams in the event of the outbreak\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr. Chireh<\/span><\/span>, who is also the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Health, added that the taskforce<\/span><\/span> \u201cmust initiate measures including<\/span><\/span> public education and awareness creation about Ebola and other areas.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis House must also be briefed urgently on the proposed measures\u201d<\/span><\/span> he said days after UNICEF issued a statement on the outbreak in Guinea saying, \u201cAt least 59 out of 80 who contracted Ebola across the West African country have died so far\u201d.<\/p>\n

Another former Minister for Health, Dr. Richard Anane<\/span><\/span>, added his voice to the Wa<\/span><\/span> West MPs call. On his feet, the Minority Spokesperson for Health made a direct appeal to Ghana\u2019s Ministry of Health to call an urgent meeting of Health Ministers within West Africa to discuss a collective strategy to fight the Ebola outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026<\/span><\/span>At that meeting they [the Ministers of Health] may have to find ways and means of stemming this condition,\u201d Dr. Anane<\/span><\/span> said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sickness is very frightening more so since it has no known cure,\u201d Emmanuel Kwasi Bandua<\/span><\/span>, MP for Biakoye said.\u00a0 \u201cIt is a sickness which is alien to us,\u201d he added, echoing earlier calls for key national ministries to meet urgently to draw a plan to respond to the looming Ebola threat.<\/p>\n

He said, Ghana needs to put in place mechanisms \u201cto vet\u201d travelers entering the country in a bid to help prevent the virus from entering its borders.<\/p>\n

The seriousness with which the MPs discussed the Ebola outbreak compelled the presiding Speaker, Ebo Barton Odro, to direct that the statement together with comments made by MPs be sent to the Ministries of Health, Foreign Affairs, Food and Agriculture, Interior and Local Government and Rural Development \u201cso that necessary steps<\/span><\/span> will be taken to ensure that we stem the [disease] or prevent it completely from taking place here in Ghana\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, neighboring Guinea banned \u00a0the sale and consumption of bats to prevent the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.<\/p>\n

Bats<\/span><\/span>, a local delicacy in the small West African country, appeared to be the \u201cmain agents\u201d for the Ebola outbreak in the south, Rene Lama the country\u2019s Minister of Health was quoted by the BBC as saying.<\/p>\n

In 2005, researchers<\/span><\/span> found evidence of Ebola infection in three species of fruit bats. According to the findings, which were published in the science journal Nature, <\/i>the bats show no symptoms of the disease, indicating that they might be spreading it.<\/p>\n

\u201cFruit bats are likely the reservoirs [of Ebola],\u201d said Eric Leroy of the Centre International de Recherches M\u00e9dicales de<\/span><\/span> Franceville in Gabon, who led the 2005 research. \u201cBut we cannot exclude definitively that other species may harbor the Ebola virus [too].\u201d<\/p>\n

Again, in January 2013, <\/b>EcoHealth Alliance, a nonprofit organization that focuses on local conservation and global health issues, released new research on Ebola virus in fruit bats in the peer reviewed journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases<\/a>, a monthly publication by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).<\/p>\n

The study found Ebola virus antibodies circulating in 4% of the 276 bats screened by scientists in Bangladesh. \u00a0The results suggest that Rousettus<\/i> fruit bats are a reservoir for Ebola, or a new Ebola-like virus in South Asia.<\/p>\n

Here in Ghana, and as is the case in Guinea and many other countries globally, bats are equally widely eaten in cities, towns and villages.\u00a0 One area known<\/span><\/span> for widespread consumption of bats in Ghana is Kwahu in the Eastern Region.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople from my lineage as Kwawus are typically known in Ghana as people who enjoy this delicacy most. And so this is a matter which is dear to my heart\u2026\u201d Seth Acheampong, an MP, told this reporter after Wednesday\u2019s sitting of Ghana\u2019s Parliament, which discussed the Ebola outbreak in West Africa.<\/p>\n

The Mpraeso MP revealed that he had spoken to local health authorities in the Kwahu area to begin a campaign to not only \u201ceducate\u201d people about the risks associated with eating bats but also ban their consumption.<\/p>\n

\u201cHearing of the outbreak in Liberia and in Guinea where it started and knowing we all live in the West African peninsula, I am not comfortable because these birds migrate and we are close to Liberia and Guinea,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

While conceding that the population of bats in his constituency has shrunk significantly due to extensive consumption by the locals ,<\/span><\/span> he said comprehensive education will help stop people from \u201cgoing out to buy them from other parts of the country and bringing them home for consumption\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis can only be stopped through education,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At least sixty-two people have now been killed by the Ebola virus in Guinea, with suspected cases reported in neighboring Liberia and Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n

Ebola, an extremely contagious disease spread by close contact, has no known cure or vaccine.<\/p>\n

It kills between 25% and 90% of victims, depending on the strain of the virus, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).<\/p>\n

Symptoms include internal and external bleeding, diarrhoea<\/span><\/span> and vomiting.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

By Richard Dela Sky\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ghana\u2019s lawmakers have called for an \u201curgent\u201d national preparation to forestall possible outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in the country. It follows a wave of fatal outbreaks of the virulent disease in neighboring Guinea and Liberia, where health workers have been battling to contain the virus since Monday. At Wednesday\u2019s sitting of the 275-Member […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":7075,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[43,38],"class_list":["post-8878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-foresight-medical-center","tag-palaver-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8878","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}