The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) has confirmed that tests conducted on two of its soldiers quarantined for possible Ebola infection have proven negative.<\/p>\n
This was confirmed by the Acting Public Relations Officer of the GAF, Lieutenant Colonel Eric Aggrey Quarshie.<\/p>\n
The soldiers prior to being quarantined were on a Peace Keeping Mission in Mali.<\/p>\n
[contextly_sidebar id=”vfkON44nF54oADSuGxIsirTRuUbLrPkI”]They were brought back into the country after taken ill in Mali.<\/p>\n
Their presence at the 37 Military Hospital was said to have caused fear and panic<\/strong> <\/span><\/a>among the health workers.<\/p>\n But speaking to Citi New<\/strong>s, Lieutenant Colonel Eric Aggrey Quarshie said tests carried out on the blood samples taken from the soldiers came out negative.<\/p>\n \u201cThey were not well and they were admitted there [Mali] and transferred to the 37 Military Hospital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n He defended the decision by the 37 Military Hospital to quarantine the soldiers saying, \u201cwe have troops in Mali on Peace Keeping Mission so because they were coming from Mali and they came as medical case, the necessary precautions had to be taken and that is why the hospital had quarantined them.\u201d<\/p>\n Their blood samples were taken to Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research for confirmation.<\/p>\n \u201cFortunately, it came out negative. They are not suffering from Ebola,\u201d he stressed.<\/p>\n Lt Col. Quarshie insisted that the soldiers \u201chad medical problems and that is how come they were brought back but not because of Ebola so they will be undergoing the treatment for which they were brought down.\u201d<\/p>\n He however assured Ghanaians that GAF and the United Nations (UN) Peace Keeping programme have put measures in place to protect all personnel both in and out of the country form contracting the disease.<\/p>\n \u201cThose [Military officers] who are outside, there is a lot of attention on them and even the UN itself is also has measures in place to ensure personnel do not contract the disease whiles working to bring peace to whichever area they are deployed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By: Efua Idan Osam\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana
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