Eight people have been confirmed dead and several others on admission in some hospitals in the Tain District of the Brong Ahafo region following an outbreak of Pneumococcal meningitis.<\/p>\n
Pneumococcal meningitis occurs when bacteria invade the bloodstream and infect the membranes protecting the brain and the spinal cord.<\/p>\n
According to the Tain District Health director, Dr. Michael Rockson Adjei, the outbreak, which started late December last year, has been contained but he further warned it is still contagious.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Citi News<\/strong>, Dr. Adjei stated, \u201cwe recorded a number of strange deaths. In the initial stage, it was an old woman who died on December 2, 2015. 14 days later her grandson fell ill and also died. We could not ascertain the cause of these deaths.”<\/p>\n He further revealed three more people from the community with fever symptoms and headache following which test were condocted a it was concluded\u00a0Pneumococcal meningitis was the cause of the deaths.<\/p>\n “So the clinical department did their evaluation… and it was concluded that it was Pneumococcal meningitis. Similar cases followed from the same community and then the outbreak was declared. So far we have had eight deaths so far.”<\/p>\n Dr Adjei\u00a0added the District Health Service had activated their emergency surveillance plan along with community sensitisation following the second death.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cafter the second death the Public Heath Unit of the District Health Service activated their emergency surveillance plan. We have had a series of Community sensitization at the mosques, houses and churches. We have also carried out active surveillance search to look out for any outbreaks. About 30 patients are on admission and are responding to treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n Dr. Adjei also outlined first aid procedures for reported cases.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cwe have asked people to take in more fluids to prevent dehydration. We should desists from smoking and eat healthy. People should also try not spitting openly and should not cough without covering their mouth.”<\/p>\n –<\/p>\n By: Kojo Agyeman\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Eight people have been confirmed dead and several others on admission in some hospitals in the Tain District of the Brong Ahafo region following an outbreak of Pneumococcal meningitis. Pneumococcal meningitis occurs when bacteria invade the bloodstream and infect the membranes protecting the brain and the spinal cord. According to the Tain District Health director, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,11],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n