Ghana seeks WHO support to contain meningitis
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stepped in to provide technical support for Ghana to contain pneumococcal meningitis which has so far killed 33 people.
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The Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America (USA) is also providing support for the confirmatory testing of samples.
The centre will also help the Ministry of Health (MoH) to identify the causative organisms of the outbreak.
As of last Sunday, the disease had killed 32 people out of 142 cases.
Already, a team of experts from WHO left Accra yesterday for the affected areas in the Brong Ahafo and the Northern regions to assess the situation on the ground.
The fact-finding exercise by the team will enable it to provide technical advice for the government and the international body on how best to tackle the issue.
Interventions
The WHO Disease Prevention and Control Officer, Dr Sally-Ann Ohene, made this known to the Daily Graphic on the sidelines of a press conference organised by the MoH and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in Accra yesterday.
She said the WHO had already presented rapid diagnostic test (RDT) kits suitable for preliminary or emergency medical screening to the MoH for distribution to affected areas.
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Presently, Dr Ohene said, what was needed most in the affected areas was public education to ensure that people reported cases to health facilities on time.
Briefing the media on the state of affairs in the affected areas, a Deputy Director and Head of Surveillance of the GHS, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, who had earlier led a team of experts to the Brong Ahafo and the Northern regions, said outbreaks due to meningococcal meningitis remained a major public health challenge in the 26 meningitis-affected countries in Africa.
He said an effective mass preventive immunisation campaign in 2012 led to the decline in cases in the three regions in the north which were the mostly affected due to the harsh climate, a situation which was conducive to the neisseria meningitis, a bacterium that causes Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM).
The end result of the suppression of the first bacteria, he said, was the outbreak of the new strain known as streptococcus pneumoniae which, he said, had become more pronounced and a public health threat and demanded effective preparedness and response strategies.
Burden in Ghana from 2010 to 2015
In 2010 there were 1,164 cases of meningitis with 128 deaths.
In 2011, there were 790 cases with 104 deaths.
In 2012 the country recorded 956 cases with 90 deaths.
In 2013 there were 454 cases with 41 deaths.
In 2014 there were 477 cases with 39 deaths and in 2015, the country recorded 315 cases with 33 deaths.
Current situation
Dr Bekoe said the current nature of the outbreak of the disease brought to the fore the changing epidemiology of meningitis in the country vis-a-vis challenging gaps in preparedness and response of the health system to the outbreak.
The outbreak, he said, had affected Brohani and Seikwa communities in the Tain District, the Wenchi, Techiman North, Nkoranza South and Atebubu and Sene West districts and the Techiman municipality, all in the Brong Ahafo Region and the Bole and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba districts, both in the Northern Region.
In all, he said, there were 153 cases, with 33 deaths, a situation which, according to him, could change with time.
Must know
The disease presents itself with the following: headache and any of the following – Neck pains, neck stiffness, convulsions, confusion, bulging anterior fontanelle for children under one or a sudden unexplained death.
People have been asked to avoid crowded areas, drink a lot of water, improve ventilation in rooms and report to the nearest facility as soon as possible with any malaria-like symptoms.