Foreign students from Ebola affected countries will not undergo compulsory screening by the university of Ghana health officials despite the possible threat.<\/p>\n
The Education Ministry had earlier directed all tertiary institutions to remain closed due to the outbreak of the deadly Ebola<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>disease in some West African countries.<\/p>\n This was largely due to the fact that some Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) citizens are enrolled in tertiary institutions in Ghana therefore, it was imperative for measures to be put in place to prevent the possible outbreak of the disease in Ghana.<\/p>\n [contextly_sidebar id=”SOz6cCnMHhnob7iHfwDIWcb1XeAvVNYe”]Public universities across the country are scheduled to commence the 2014\/2015 academic year from Friday after university teachers called off their month-long strike.<\/p>\n The Education Ministry said postponing the re-opening date was to allow all necessary screening and preparedness measures\u2019 to be put in place at the various campuses to tackle any threats of Ebola.<\/p>\n The Ministry also announced that all foreign students from Ebola-affected will be screened<\/strong><\/span><\/a> before tertiary institutions re-open.<\/p>\n However Citi News Checks<\/strong>\u00a0at the University of Ghana (UG) have revealed there are no structures in place to screen students in the wake of the Ebola scare.<\/p>\n Maxwell Agbabga, a student journalist with campus-based Radio Universe reported that there are no signs of screening centers or isolation centers.<\/p>\n His visit to the university hospital also revealed the hospital was not prepared to cater for any patient with the Ebola disease.<\/p>\n Some of the hospital officials who spoke to Agbabga on condition of anonymity said they are yet to receive any directive from the university management to begin screening students for Ebola.<\/p>\n The Acting Registrar of U.G, Enoch Amartey on his part said his outfit has had a series of meetings with the Director of Medical Services and other stakeholders where a strategy has been mapped out to control the disease in case of an outbreak.<\/p>\n He disclosed that forms are going to be made available on the universities website for students to fill in order to be screened.<\/p>\n \u201cHe stated emphatically that it is not compulsory to be screened just as HIV\/AIDS is not compulsory. It\u2019s not compulsory to force people to go and test. You cannot force students to go and test for the Ebola Virus Disease [EVD],\u201d Agbabga reported.<\/p>\n Based on this, the university will make the forms available for interested students to apply to be tested.<\/p>\n Meanwhile\u00a0authorities of the University of Cape Coast (UCC) have also announced that the 2014\/2015 academic year will begin next week.<\/p>\n It is unclear yet whether the school has any concrete plans to screen foreign students from any of the Ebola-stricken countries.<\/p>\n The Ebola disease has claimed over 1,900 lives while 3,500 cases have been confirmed.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
\nFollow @osamidan<\/a>
\n