The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has on Wednesday (22 June) dismissed reports making rounds that the West African country has recorded its first Ebola case.
A section of the mainstream media reported that a positive case has been confirmed in the Northern Region, which turned out to be a report from a health simulation exercise.
Briefing the media in Accra, the director-general of the health service, Dr Patrick Kumah-Aboagye said: “I want to use this opportunity to say there is no Ebola case in Ghana,” confirming that what happened in Tamale was a simulation exercise, which was misreported by the media.
Earlier, the Northern regional disease surveillance officer, Francis Atiagbor also corroborated what the director-general had said.
“I am not aware that we have picked an Ebola case in the Northern Region, but what I can say for a fact is that we were doing simulation exercise on Ebola virus disease at the Public Health Emergency Management Operation Centre,” he said.
“Simulation exercises are part of one of the requirements under international health regulations and then all countries are enjoined to regularly do simulation exercise to test their preparedness for such public health emergencies.
Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a rare and deadly disease in people and nonhuman primates. The viruses that cause EVD are located mainly in sub-Saharan Africa. People can get EVD through direct contact with an infected animal (bat or nonhuman primate) or a sick or dead person infected with Ebola virus.
Source: Daily Mail GH
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