We need robust health systems to prevent epidemics — Dr Bampoe
The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr Victor Bampoe, has observed that the ultimate intervention to prevent epidemics in the West African sub-region depends on a robust health system.
Advertisement
Such a system, he said, must be able to detect and prevent diseases early before they became endemic.
“Currently, there are over 350 hospitals, 760 health centres and more than 1,200 clinics in the country, with over 3,000 doctors and 35,000 nurses.
“Making sure that you have the right people, infrastructure, equipment and surveillance to pick up the disease quickly is critical. The knee-jerk response may be ok, but not sustainable,” Dr Bampoe indicated.
Dialogue
The minister made the observation when he spoke on the health policy position in Ghana relating to epidemics at a stakeholders’ roundtable policy dialogue in Accra.
The event was jointly organised by an association of friends from diverse professional backgrounds who are into charity work, ‘Paddies’, and the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), in partnership with the World Bank.
It was on the theme: “Socio-economic, political and security threats of epidemics — Lessons of HIV/AIDS and Ebola”.
On Ebola, Dr Bampoe noted that despite the public education on it since last year, “the bottom line to deal with any epidemic situation depends on investment in the health sector by training people to ensure sustainable health security nationwide”.
Other Trending Stories
Implications
Speaking on the political and security implications of epidemics, the Director of Academic Affairs (DAA) at the Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College (GAFCSC), Dr Vladimir Antwi-Danso, implored policy makers in the sub-region to show more concern about the management of epidemics, since they were detrimental to development.
He said, for instance, that in The Gambia, where they relied solely on tourism, about 40 per cent of the revenue from the sector was lost and almost 61 per cent of bookings in The Gambia were cut off because of the Ebola outbreak last year.
He, therefore, entreated policy makers not to restrict security to only external threat because “non-security issues like Ebola and HIV/AIDS can also lead to a security threat, especially during migration and commercial activities”.
Other issues discussed were lessons learnt from the global response in the management of epidemics, the economic impact of epidemics and highlights-study on Ebola awareness in Ghana.