{"id":380374,"date":"2017-12-05T19:13:28","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T19:13:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=380374"},"modified":"2017-12-05T19:24:53","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T19:24:53","slug":"i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/","title":{"rendered":"I never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has denied attributing the multiple cases of \u2018mysterious\u2019 health-related deaths at the Kumasi Academy School (KUMACA) over the past week to Ebola.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

[contextly_sidebar id=”dzBEguIJspjR4meL7e6yQcWqOFRLDDnC”]However speaking in an interview with Citi News,<\/strong> the Minister denied making such claims, saying \u201cIt is never true.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/strong><\/span><\/a> to take them out.<\/p>\n

KUMACA deaths: Meningitis ruled out, bacterial infection suspected<\/strong><\/p>\n

As speculation on the possible cause of these cases grow, health officials in the Ashanti Region have ruled out Meningitis<\/strong><\/a> as the cause of the recent deaths.<\/p>\n

The officials, however suspect a bacterial infection in the school.<\/p>\n

Speaking to the Media, the Ashanti Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Emmanuel Tenkorang, said \u201cwe have done all the tests for meningitis. They are negative, so it shows that the condition is not meningitis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d the doctor added.<\/p>\n

Kumasi Academy to close down over \u2018mysterious\u2019 student deaths<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Minister also indicated that, the school will be closed down<\/strong><\/span><\/a> latest by Friday, December 8 to pave way for screening of staff of the school.<\/p>\n

This according to the Minister is to ensure that none of them has an ailment that is infectious.<\/p>\n

This decision was taken after a meeting with the Ashanti Regional Health Directorate, the Ghana Education Service, and the school\u2019s Parents and Teacher Association.<\/p>\n

On the screening and treatment, the Minister said \u201cwe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Osei Mensah explained that, the screening was necessary to minimize the risk posed by the supposed \u2018mysterious\u2019 illness.<\/p>\n

\u201cImmediately after the exercise, we will close down the school and ask all the students to go home. The reason why we don\u2019t want to close the school now is that, we don\u2019t 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\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Background <\/strong><\/p>\n

Six students have so far been discharged from the KNUST hospital, while 18 others are still on admission.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyemang-Manu, has also been summoned to Parliament<\/strong><\/a><\/span> over the death of students.<\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/strong><\/span> to rescue their wards.<\/p>\n

–
\nBy: Marian Ansah\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has denied attributing the multiple cases of \u2018mysterious\u2019 health-related deaths at the Kumasi Academy School (KUMACA) over the past week to Ebola. 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, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":380379,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,11],"tags":[2031,3,15209,3499,1215],"yoast_head":"\nI never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"I never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has denied attributing the multiple cases of \u2018mysterious\u2019 health-related deaths at the Kumasi Academy School (KUMACA) over the past week to Ebola. 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, […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-05T19:13:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-05T19:24:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Simon-Osei-Mensah.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"492\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"324\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@citi973\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/\",\"name\":\"I never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-05T19:13:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-05T19:24:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"I never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/\",\"name\":\"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always\",\"description\":\"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1\",\"name\":\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Kojo Akoto Boateng\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/kojo\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"I never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"I never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","og_description":"The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah, has denied attributing the multiple cases of \u2018mysterious\u2019 health-related deaths at the Kumasi Academy School (KUMACA) over the past week to Ebola. 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, […]","og_url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/","og_site_name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/citi97.3","article_published_time":"2017-12-05T19:13:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-12-05T19:24:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":492,"height":324,"url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Simon-Osei-Mensah.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@citi973","twitter_site":"@citi973","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/","name":"I never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister - Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-12-05T19:13:28+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-05T19:24:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/12\/i-never-attributed-kumaca-students-deaths-to-ebola-minister\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"I never attributed KUMACA students\u2019 deaths to Ebola \u2013 Minister"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/","name":"Citi 97.3 FM - Relevant Radio. Always","description":"Ghana News | Ghana Politics | Ghana Soccer | Ghana Showbiz","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/1642ef473fe39bf0c4e2f2f252678eb1","name":"Kojo Akoto Boateng","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ba51f5385119e83762c67ecd6aa410ab?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Kojo Akoto Boateng"},"url":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/author\/kojo\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380374"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}