{"id":182978,"date":"2016-01-19T12:33:25","date_gmt":"2016-01-19T12:33:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=182978"},"modified":"2016-01-19T12:33:25","modified_gmt":"2016-01-19T12:33:25","slug":"pneumococcal-meningitis-outbreak-in-ba-contained-health-ministry-audio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2016\/01\/pneumococcal-meningitis-outbreak-in-ba-contained-health-ministry-audio\/","title":{"rendered":"Pneumococcal meningitis outbreak in B\/A contained – Health Ministry [Audio]"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Bampoe has revealed the recent outbreak of Pneumococcal Meningitis in the Brong Ahafo region has been contained.<\/p>\n

The Pneumococcal Meningitis outbreak has so far killed 15 people in the Tain, Wenchi, Techiman and Bruohan districts in the Brong Ahafo Region.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”HikHP8nfGWZokyi3slWA2J7KdJXjKcIR”]Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show<\/strong>, Dr Bampoe also said visits to the three Northern regions and the\u00a0Brong Ahafo region revealed about 55 people had been affected with meningitis with slightly over 19 fatalities as of Friday last week.<\/p>\n

The Deputy Health Minister however assured health officials were on top of the situation.<\/p>\n

\u201c… It is nothing to worry about because the district health teams, the regional health management teams and the district assemblies are very much in control,\u201d he assured.<\/p>\n

According to Dr Bampoe, it remains unclear why the Pneumococcal Meningitis is spreading quickly in the districts in the Brong Ahafo region but he says the focus of health officials at the moment is on keeping the disease from spreading further.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes we are interested in why B.A\u201d he said, \u201cbut we are more interested in making sure it does not spread beyond the five districts of Brong Ahafo\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Bampoe also indicated the outbreak of the disease is being treated as an epidemic but assured there was no need for panic as health officials were working to curtail the spread of this Pneumococcal meningitis strain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no need for fear and panic. It\u2019s very well in hand and we have to trust to the systems we have set up to deal with it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By Delali Adogla-Bessa\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n