Port health unit opens at

A Port Health Unit has opened at the Aflao Border, in accordance with the international health regulation of 2005.

The international health regulation is to enable nations to achieve health security pertaining to disease surveillance and control, food safety and hygiene, environment and conveyance in vehicles and vector control across the border.

Vaccination centre
Consequently, a vaccination centre against yellow fever, cerebro-spinal meningitis (CSM), Hepatitis B and cholera has been established at the border, with the Ketu South Municipal Hospital at Aflao  designated as a referral point for the treatment of infected travellers.
According to the Assistant Chief Public Health Officer in charge of Aflao Port Health of the GHS, Mr Raphael John Marfo, travellers without vaccination certificates could be sanctioned, saying that 32 Ghanaians were deported from South Africa and three each from China and Ethiopia in 2012 for not holding valid vaccination certificates.

International health regulation
He said Ghana had not met the basic core capacity for the implementation of the international health regulation set for 2005 and by 2012, it had still not met the requirements and, therefore, asked for an extension of two years to enable it to achieve the desired capacity.
Mr Marfo said with the opening of the Port Health Unit at Aflao, Segbe and Akanu  and the designation of a referral hospital, the country was set to provide adequate public health service, in accordance with public health laws and international health regulations, to ensure a maximum degree of protection against the international spread of diseases.

Ghana Health Service
The Ketu South Municipal Director of Health Services, Mr Joseph Kwami Degley, said with the opening of the Port Health Unit, it would be possible to track the safety of people and goods leaving the country for neighbouring countries.
He stated that there had been a cordial relationship between the health directorate of Kodzoviakope in Togo and its counterpart at Aflao, adding that joint meetings were held to discuss disease surveillance.
He said public education was ongoing in the municipality on the Ebola virus and that all health personnel had been sensitised to be on the look-out for possible cases.
Mr Degley appealed to travellers to co-operate with port health officials towards the delivery of quality health services at the border, adding that government and non-governmental organisations should come to the aid of the health directorate in providing sanitation facilities for travellers to help improve sanitation at the border.