Govt orders protective gear for health workers
By Edmund
Smith-Asante
 |
| Dr Edward Omane-Boamah |
About
10,000 pieces of personal protective equipment (PPE) have been
ordered by the government for frontline health workers who will be handling
Ebola cases in the event of an outbreak of the disease.
At a
meeting with representatives of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA), the
Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association (GIBA) and the Private
Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana (PRINPAG), he said
additionally, a number of PPE had already been supplied by the World Health
Organisation (WHO) to help contain the disease that had claimed over 1,000
lives in four West African countries.
The
meeting was called to brief the three associations on the work done by
the inter-ministerial team set up by the government to deal with the Ebola
pandemic.
The
meeting was also intended to solicit the support of media practitioners
to further sensitise the general public to the disease.
Other
interventions
Dr
Omane-Boamah said other interventions included the procurement of more
thermometers and construction of three treatment centres.
“Our
first goal is to prevent the disease and in the worst case scenario, how to
respond to it,” he added.
He said a
meeting with the various universities had been scheduled for today to assess
their preparedness before they would reopen.
A
simulation exercise is also due to be held within two weeks to test the
country’s preparedness in the event of an outbreak of Ebola.
Dr
Omane-Boamah explained that the postponement of the reopening of the
universities was very important, because about 6,000 foreign students
from about 100 countries were schooling in Ghana, a number of them from
countries which have reported Ebola cases.
Entry
points
The
Communications Minister said a team, made up of personnel from the Ministry
of Defence, Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) and Ghana Armed Forces (GAF),
had been put together to conduct specific surveillance on both approved
and unapproved routes to the country.
He also
said through the contact forms filled by international travellers, about
20 people who were in close proximity or had some contact with the
Liberian-American, Patrick Sawyer, who travelled to Nigeria with the Ebola
Viral Disease (EVD) through Ghana, had been identified and screened.
Dr
Omane-Boamah informed the meeting that the government was working on a policy
to insure any health worker likely to be infected by the EVD in the
course of duty.
Public education
To assist
in sensitising the general public, the minister said, messages had been
developed for radio. These were already being played on radio stations for
free. He also said a video clip was almost ready for television.
He lauded
the Daily Graphic and other print media houses for their efforts to
sensitise the public to Ebola.
The
Executive Secretary of PRINPAG, Nii Laryea Sowah, asked the government to
include advertisers’ announcement in the print media in its
sensitisation interventions.
The GJA
President, Dr Affail Monney, recommended that the media should be given access
to credible sources to enable them to broadcast credible information.
An Executive
Council Member of GIBA, Mr Stephen Ato Ashen, asked for the streamlining of
objective information from one source on the EVD at all times.
In his
response, Dr Omane-Boamah said there would be an official feed or source of
information, should there be any outbreak.
“If it is
confirmed, we would be the first to put it out there for everyone to be on a
high alert. Government has no interest to cover up any Ebola infection,” he
stressed.
Writer’s
email: Edmund.Asante@graphic.com.gh
This was first published by the Daily Graphic on August 20, 2014
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