Ebola medical store for Tema Hospital
An GH¢80,000 medical store to stock Ebola personal protective equipment at the Ebola treatment centre of the Tema General Hospital has been inaugurated.
Built by Barry Callebaut, a Swiss cocoa processing company, the facility will store equipment and medicines meant for the treatment of Ebola cases.
Let’s sustain vigilance
Inaugurating the facility, the Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Asare Bampoe, said since the outbreak of the disease in West Africa, 138 suspected Ebola cases had been reported at various health centres in Ghana but they all turned out to be negative when tested at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR).
He said the country’s preparedness for Ebola had pillars consisting of public education, point of entry screening and active community surveillance, as well as case management.
“We have to sustain our vigilance to ensure that we manage the situation if any possible outbreak occurs,” he added.
Dr Bampoe said an incident management system (IMS) had been established to identify, isolate and manage any case of Ebola that would be detected in the country.
He said the IMS consisted of an emergency operations centre with an incident commander to, among other functions, liaise with other institutions to manage public information and co-ordinated community action, identify resource needs and liaise with the government and development partners to fill gaps.
The deputy minister said the 42 Ghanaian health workers who returned from Ebola-affected countries had come with enough experience to support Ghana in case of any reported case.
He commended Barry Callebaut for its support in the health sector and also giving back to the society in which it operated.
Initiative laudable
Answering questions from the media, the Medical Director of the Tema General Hospital, Dr Poku Adusei, said the store would also serve as offices for doctors who would treat patients should there be any outbreak.
He called for more isolation centres to be constructed for the treatment of infectious diseases such as cholera.
The Managing Director of Barry Callebaut, Mr John Andre, stated that more of such projects would be put up to enhance development in the country.
