A deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye has led a team of professionals from the Ministry to the Upper West Region to assess the outbreak of Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) in the area.
The visit is also to engage with various stakeholders on how to combat the endemic.
Dr. Okoe Boye said the government is concerned about the havoc caused by the disease and will commit resources to halt its spread in the region.
“Government hasn’t taken its eye off the ball when it comes to other health conditions. We are dealing with COVID-19 but we’ve put equal importance on conditions like CSM. When you look at the WHO protocol, the case fatality and rate that is considered as normal is when it’s less than 10%. But we know that over the past few months when you look at the cases in the Upper West Region, we’ve gone to about 15%. We appreciate the fact that it is quite high. The plan is to quickly find a way to educate and encourage people to do early reportage to the hospitals. The short message is that government is fully committed to managing all health conditions including CSM,” he indicated.
President Nana Akufo-Addo has been disquiet over the recent CSM related deaths recorded in the northern parts of the country.
The Upper West Region has recorded 40 deaths from the disease out of about 258 confirmed cases in the region.
Seven persons have also died from the disease in the Upper East Region.
So far, over 400 CSM cases have been recorded in the five regions in the north.
According to the Ghana Health Service, the current outbreak of Meningitis in the Upper West Region is caused by a new strain of bacteria that has no vaccine.
It has however indicated that even though there is no vaccine for this strain causing the outbreak, there is an effective treatment upon early reporting and initiation of the said treatment.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Health, Kwaku Agyeman Manu says the government is working with experts to deal with the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis in the five regions of the north.
