This follows a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Ghana Nursing and Midwifery Council, the Ministry of Health and international health NGO, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

The MoU was a result of a proposal made by Médecins Sans Frontières, to the Ministry of Health and the Nursing and Midwifery Council to offer and fund a bridging course for certificate nurses from Sierra Leone in Ghana.

The project, which starts in January 2018, will allow MSF,  train the 50 nurses and midwives in two nursing and midwifery training schools; that’s Korle Bu and Koforidua, with each school admitting 25 trainees.

MSF is a leading emergency medical humanitarian organization providing assistance in about 70 countries around the world.

The official inaugural ceremony for the training of the 50 enrolled nurses and midwives was attended by the Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu and his deputy, Tina Mensah.

Mr. Manu expressed confidence that the two year program will equip  the trainees with  enough skills to enable them provide quality health care to the people of Sierra Leone.  He also congratulated the two nursing and midwifery training schools; that’s Korle Bu and Koforidua and MSF for making the project possible.

“We are all aware that Sierra Leone has undergone health crisis as a result of Ebola. It is my hope that after the nurses are done with this programme, they will return to Sierra Leone and help rebuild the country’s shuttered health service”.

Also present at the event were a deputy  Foreign Affairs Minister,  Mohammed Habib Tijani, Registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Felix Nyante, and officials from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

About the training program

The training project is part of MSF’s strategy to develop the required level of Human Resources for a proposed 160 bed Paediatric and Obstetric Hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, which was hard hit during the Ebola outbreak.

More than 200 health workers from the district lost their lives during the epidemic.

Ghana was chosen by MSF due to the international standards of nursing and midwifery education, training and practice that are on offered.

–

By: Pearl Akanya Ofori/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Sierra Leonean nurses, midwives in Ghana for 2-year training appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The Tamale Teaching Hospital (TTH) can now boast of an emergency centre to cater for patients infected with Ebola and other deadly diseases.

As the only infectious disease isolation centre, it is expected to augment the nation’s emergency preparedness and response to outbreaks of contagious diseases.

The facility has a capacity of about 20 beds, a water tanker and an ambulance bay as prescribed by the World Health Organisation in the wake of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa back in 2014.

The newly-constructed facility, known as the Infectious Disease Treatment Centre (IDTC) was funded by the Korean government under the auspices of the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), at the cost of 1.5 million cedis.

A Deputy Minister for Health, Kingsley Aboagye Gyedu inaugurated the facility and thanked the Korean government for its humanitarian services.

Mr. Gyedu urged all health staff in the three regions of the north to take advantage of the facility and improve health care delivery in that part of the country.

“The IDTC needs competent staff and appropriate equipment to ensure effective and efficient delivery of suitable services to clients sent to the centre.”

The KOICA’s Country Director, Yukyum Kim reiterated the Korean government’s commitment to helping Ghana succeed in attaining her Millennium Development Goals saying, “the government of Korea will continue to be Ghana’s closest partner in development.”

The Chief Executive Officer of the Tamale Teaching Hospital, Dr. Azaawomya Akolbila commended the Korean government for uplifting the hospital’s image with the siting of the Center at the facility.

“I thank the Korean government for providing funds for the construction of the centre which is expected to serve the entire Northern Ghana.”

Dr. Akolbila underscored the need for government to make it fully functional.

“This place is situated in a lowland area and is therefore flood-prone. Extensive external works, including further filling, paving and drainages are needed to prevent the centre from flooding during the rainy season. Also, with training as part of its intended functions, the centre will need training equipment.”

“I wish to appeal to KOICA again, the Honourable Regional Minister and the Metropolitan Chief Executive to consider extending an access road to this centre and also provide a gated fence wall to secure the premises,” he added.

–

By: Abdul Karim Naatogmah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post Tamale Teaching Hospital gets GH¢1.5m Ebola centre appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

A news portal had reported that, the Minister had suggested in an interview with Kumasi-based Nhyira FM, that the deaths might have been caused by Ebola, and not meningitis as reported earlier.

[contextly_sidebar id=”dzBEguIJspjR4meL7e6yQcWqOFRLDDnC”]However speaking in an interview with Citi News, the Minister denied making such claims, saying “It is never true.”

According to him, he only gave the analogy that, people need to wait for results of the test before arriving at conclusions as was the case with the Ebola outbreak.

Four students have died within one week, bringing to eight, the number of students who have passed away this year alone. The situation alarmed parents whose wards are in the school, as they stormed the institution to take them out.

KUMACA deaths: Meningitis ruled out, bacterial infection suspected

As speculation on the possible cause of these cases grow, health officials in the Ashanti Region have ruled out Meningitis as the cause of the recent deaths.

The officials, however suspect a bacterial infection in the school.

Speaking to the Media, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Emmanuel Tenkorang, said “we have done all the tests for meningitis. They are negative, so it shows that the condition is not meningitis.”

“We suspect that, most probably, there was an atypical bacterial infection, and that is the reason why we have this crisis. From the pathologist report, we believe there was an infection and most probably, it is a bacterial infection, and because of the fatalities, it is one of the atypical bacteria that we are dealing with,” the doctor added.

Kumasi Academy to close down over ‘mysterious’ student deaths

The Minister also indicated that, the school will be closed down latest by Friday, December 8 to pave way for screening of staff of the school.

This according to the Minister is to ensure that none of them has an ailment that is infectious.

This decision was taken after a meeting with the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate, the Ghana Education Service, and the school’s Parents and Teacher Association.

On the screening and treatment, the Minister said “we will give doses to all the students, teaching staff and non-teaching staff. I am told it is going to be a three-day exercise.”

Mr. Osei Mensah explained that, the screening was necessary to minimize the risk posed by the supposed ‘mysterious’ illness.

“Immediately after the exercise, we will close down the school and ask all the students to go home. The reason why we don’t want to close the school now is that, we don’t want a situation whereby if the disease is infectious and some students have already got the infection, they are going to infect their whole family with it. That will be a serious risk” he said.

Background

Six students have so far been discharged from the KNUST hospital, while 18 others are still on admission.

Four students died earlier in 2017, whilst three died just last week. Another died on Tuesday morning, prompting parents to raise concerns about the safety of their wards in the school.

The Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research is expected to present a report on the cause of deaths on Wednesday. The deaths have so far been suspected to be meningitis-related.

The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has also been summoned to Parliament over the death of students.

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, who was addressing the school following a meeting with the Regional Security Council on the health crisis, witnessed the collapse of two female students, an incident that saw parents moving helter skelter to rescue their wards.

–
By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana

The post I never attributed KUMACA students’ deaths to Ebola – Minister appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

Auditors found overpriced supplies, salaries for non-existent aid workers and fake customs bills.

The disease, which raged between 2014 and 2016, claimed at least 10,000 lives.

It required a massive humanitarian operation costing hundreds of millions of dollars to bring it under control.

As Ebola spread across Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the Red Cross Federation in Geneva was dispersing cash donations to the national Red Cross societies in each of those countries – altogether a sum of about $100m.

An investigation by Red Cross auditors has revealed that in Liberia $2.7m disappeared in fraudulently overpriced supplies, or in salaries for non-existent aid workers.

In Sierra Leone, Red Cross staff apparently colluded with local bank workers to skim off over $2m while in Guinea, where investigations are ongoing, around $1m disappeared in fake customs bills.

The Red Cross told the BBC’s Imogen Foulkes in Geneva that it is deeply sorry for the losses.

The organisation adds that has introduced stricter financial rules, and promised to hold any Red Cross staff involved to account.

Fraud involving donor money is every aid agency’s nightmare, our correspondent says.

The Red Cross is the world’s best-known humanitarian organisation, and this revelation will be damaging, she adds.

–

Source: BBC

The post Red Cross loses $5m of Ebola funds to fraud appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

According to the Ministry, it had received information that at least nine others have been infected by the disease, adding that all the victims reported similar symptoms.

[contextly_sidebar id=”8uCJehbRF6fop8QgNKCw9Udmd6trzzpv”]”The symptoms reported by the victims mainly are headache, weakness, diarrhoea, vomiting, mental confusion, abdominal pain and fever. The Ministry has been advised to increase surveillance at all levels to prevent importation of the strange disease,” a letter from the Health Ministry and sighted by citifmonline.com stated.

Health authorities in Liberia were made aware of the unknown disease on April 25, 2017, when several people died in south-eastern Sinoe County.

Five Liberian communities have so far recorded the strange disease.

Strange disease not Ebola

Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Francis Kateh, had said those infected with the ‘strange’ disease showed symptoms of severe stomach pain, vomiting, diarrhea, fever and headaches, but added that initial test conducted showed that the disease was not Ebola.

Meanwhile, health professionals suspect that the strange disease is transmitted via body contact.

Blood samples have however been sent for analysis at the Center of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in the United States.

The World Health Organization (WHO), has also sent rapid response teams to the area to assist Liberian health officials with technical and logistical support.

Hundreds of people died between 2013 and 2016 after the deadly Ebola struck in some African countries  with Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone being the hardest hit countries.

–

By: Godwin Akweiteh Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

The post Health Ministry issues alert on ‘strange disease’ appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

She died in Monrovia last week after giving birth to a son.

Her husband told the BBC that nurses were unwilling to touch her for fear of contracting Ebola – even though she recently tested negative for Ebola.

The hospital has not commented, and officials say they are investigating the death.

James Harris said his wife had given birth to their fourth child by Caesarean section on 17 February – but had to be rushed back to hospital after suffering complications.

They were kept waiting in their vehicle for three hours because the nurses were afraid to touch her, Mr Harris said.

“I personally went into the emergency ward to bring a wheelchair to take my wife into the operation room.

“What really hurt me was a nurse on duty, instead of attending to the emergency, was standing by the front counter busy on Facebook,” he said.

He believes health workers did not act with more urgency “because she was an Ebola survivor and maybe they thought she still had Ebola”.

• Liberia Ebola epidemic over
• How Ebola changed the world

He also alleged that the hospital had discharged her early after the Caesarean, even though “her blood pressure was high”.

‘Extraordinary woman’

Health officials confirmed the case was being investigated.

“The investigation is ongoing, there is not much I can say. As it is now, it is kind of scanty to come out with anything, we have to do a thorough investigation,” Liberia’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr Francis Kateh, told the BBC.

“We understand the condition of the husband. He’s feeling bad and so forth, but at the same time we have to be careful.”

“The hospital knew she had Ebola and they operated on her which put them at more risk,” he added.

Mr Harris said his wife had lost many relatives to Ebola including her parents but she survived and had benefited from a US-Liberian vaccine regime.

All recent tests that she had taken had come back negative, he added.

Liberia was one of the three West African states devastated by the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Even before the epidemic, and after 14 years of brutal conflict, the country’s healthcare system was in crisis.

Speaking on the BBC’s Newsday programme on Wednesday, Time Magazine’s Africa Editor, Aryn Baker, described Salome Karwah, whom she had met, as “an extraordinary woman” who had gone back to the clinic where she worked as living proof that Ebola could be beaten.

Before Ebola happened, there were only about 50 doctors working in the entire country, Ms Baker added.

The BBC’s Jonathan Paye-Layleh in Monrovia says that more than two years after the Ebola crisis which exposed the weakness of the health sector in Liberia, healthcare delivery is still faced with a huge challenge and is almost nonexistent in most of the country.

It was thought that international intervention during the Ebola fight would culminate into the building of a stronger health sector; but the situation is so bad that those who can afford to still have to travel abroad to seek medical attention, our correspondent adds.

–

Source: BBC

The post Hero nurse ‘died after Ebola prejudice’ appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The vaccine is the first to prevent infection from one of the most lethal known pathogens, and the findings add weight to early trial results published in 2015.

The vaccine, called rVSV-ZEBOV, was studied in a trial involving 11, 841 people in Guinea during 2015. Among the 5,837 people who received the vaccine, no Ebola cases were recorded 10 days or more after vaccination. In comparison, there were 23 cases 10 days or more after vaccination among those who did not receive the vaccine.

According to a release available to the Ghana News Agency the trial was led by the World Health Organisation (WHO), together with Guinea’s Ministry of Health, Medecins sans Frontieres and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, in collaboration with other international partners.

Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, WHO’s Assistant Director for Health Systems and Innovation, and the study’s lead author said “While these compelling results come too late for those who lost their lives during West Africa’s Ebola epidemic, they show that when the next Ebola outbreak hits, we will not be defenseless.”

The vaccine’s manufacturer, Merck, Sharpe & Dohme, has received Breakthrough Therapy Designation from the United States Food and Drug Administration and PRIME status from the European Medicines Agency, enabling faster regulatory review of the vaccine once it is submitted.

Since Ebola virus was first identified in 1976, sporadic outbreaks have been reported in Africa but the 2013–2016 West African outbreak, which resulted in more than 11,300 deaths, highlighted the need for a vaccine.

It said the trial took place in the coastal region of Basse-Guinée, the area of Guinea still experiencing new Ebola cases when the trial started in 2015.

It used an innovative design, a so-called “ring vaccination” approach – the same method used to eradicate small pox.

Practically, it said when a new Ebola case was diagnosed, the research team traced all people who may have been in contact with that case within the previous 3 weeks, such as people who lived in the same household, were visited by the patient, or were in close contact with the patient, their clothes or linen, as well as certain “contacts of contacts”.

A total of 117 clusters (or “rings”) were identified, each made up of an average of 80 people.

Initially, rings were randomised to receive the vaccine either immediately or after a 3-week delay, and only adults over 18 years were offered the vaccine. After interim results were published showing the vaccine’s efficacy, all rings were offered the vaccine immediately and the trial was also opened to children older than 6 years.

The statement said in addition to showing high efficacy among those vaccinated, the trial also shows that unvaccinated people in the rings were indirectly protected from Ebola virus through the ring vaccination approach (so called “herd immunity”).

However, the authors note that the trial was not designed to measure this effect, so more research will be needed.

“Ebola left a devastating legacy in our country. We are proud that we have been able to contribute to developing a vaccine that will prevent other nations from enduring what we endured,” said Dr KeÏta Sakoba, Coordinator of the Ebola Response and Director of the National Agency for Health Security in Guinea.

To assess safety, people who received the vaccine were observed for 30 minutes after vaccination, and at repeated home visits up to 12 weeks later. Approximately half reported mild symptoms soon after vaccination, including headache, fatigue and muscle pain but recovered within days without long-term effects. Two serious adverse events were judged to be related to vaccination (a febrile reaction and one anaphylaxis) and one was judged to be possibly related (influenza-like illness). All three recovered without any long term effects.

It was not possible to collect biological samples from people who received the vaccine in order to analyse their immune response. Other studies are looking at the immune response to the vaccine including one conducted in parallel to the ring trial among frontline Ebola workers in Guinea.

“This both historical and innovative trial was made possible thanks to exemplary international collaboration and coordination, the contribution of many experts worldwide, and strong local involvement,” said Dr John-Arne Røttingen, specialist director at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, and the chairman of the study steering group.

In January 2015, GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance provided US$5 million to Merck towards the future procurement of the vaccine once it is approved, prequalified and recommended by WHO. As part of this agreement, Merck committed to ensure that 300 000 doses of the vaccine are available for emergency use in the interim, and to submit the vaccine for licensure by the end of 2017.

Merck has also submitted the vaccine to WHO’s Emergency Use and Assessment Listing procedure, a mechanism through which experimental vaccines, medicines and diagnostics can be made available for use prior to formal licensure.

It said additional studies are ongoing to provide more data on the safety of the vaccine in children and other vulnerable populations such as people with HIV. In case of Ebola flare-ups prior to approval, access to the vaccine is being made available through a procedure called “compassionate use” that enables use of the vaccine after informed consent.

It said Merck and WHO’s partners are working to compile data to support license applications.

The rapid development of rVSV-EBOV contributed to the development of WHO’s R&D Blueprint, a global strategy to fast-track the development of effective tests, vaccines and medicines during epidemics.

–

Source: GNA

The post Experimental Ebola vaccine trial shows positive prospects appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.

The dowry (or bride price), which is an amount a prospective groom pays to the brides family has become the source of sorrow for many would-be couples.

In some part of the power-plagued Upper West region of Ghana, a man may have to cough between 5000 and 30000 cowries plus about 4 to 12 cows as the bride price.

This situation has resulted in some would-be couples cohabiting without going through the normal traditional rites. Those who manage to pay the expensive dowries end up abusing their wives because of the perceived sense of ownership due to the payment of the bride price.

Should marriage be this expensive?

How can would-be couples live their dreams in such circumstances?

How can domestic violence be prevented due to this situation?

Should the payment of dowries be abolished?

Latif Mahama tells the story of the enslaved wives of Wa in this documentary.

The 97.3 Citi FM Hold My Hand Documentary Series is proudly sponsored by STAR GHANA.

The post Enslaved Wives of Wa: How the dowry is destroying marriages appeared first on Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always.