Report by Nana POKU
There has been an incidence some cases of Monkeypox and Influenza in the country.
This was announced by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service at a press briefing in Accra at the Ministry of Information.
The DG stated that 5 cases have been confirmed in three regions; Eastern, Western, and the Greater Accra regions after 12 cases were reported on May 22nd.
Another Ghanaian in the United States of America has also contracted the disease.
The GHS boss intimated that there is no cure so far and cautioned Ghanaians to be wary of its presence and watch out.
“Fortunately there are no deaths arising out of the disease,” he stated and asked Ghanaians to observe the same protocols similar to Covid 19 pandemic.
The DG told the journalists that they have prepared to tackle it with the same facilities used during the Covid 19 era. The disease is prevalent in Cameroon and Nigerian and is transmitted from monkeys to humans and humans to humans by body contact.
However, there is a vaccine for its treatment, and Ghana is ready to treat it.
In another development, 3 new cases of influenza have been reported in the country. Two cases were confirmed in Volta Region and one case in the Greater Accra Region, but no deaths have been reported yet.
In all about 3460 cases were reported in the Eastern, Volta, and Greater Accra regions. Eastern had the greatest number followed by Greater Accra Region and Volta Region. All other regions have reported cases except Upper West, Upper East, and North East Regions.
The DG told journalists that the disease comes in different forms and types. For its prevention one needs to observe the same Covid 19 protocols as both viruses behave much the same way. The Director-General intimated that Ghana has three different diseases, namely: Covid 19 pandemic which is on surge; N (H 3) influenza, and Monkeypox plaguing the country.
All these diseases are not overwhelming and the country is putting measures in place to tackle them.
