Ghana: Bracing against Ebola syndrome

Miles Mudzviti, Managing Director of Pharma Africa, an organisation which had arranged to organise a high-level pharmaceutical summit in Ghana in early September said, “We have had to cancel our Summit and reschedule it to February 2015 due to the Ghana government’s ban on international gatherings in the country.” He, however, praised the government for the proactive move, which is aimed at preventing the disease from entering the country.

In the mining sector, an area dominated by expatriate firms, reports indicate that some companies have evacuated non-essential staff. Even Ghanaian businesses operating in countries such as Liberia have had to cease operations or scale down fearing the worst.

Education has not been spared, as schools have had to postpone reopening dates disrupting the school calendar. Due to the relatively higher quality of educational standards in Ghana, there are thousands of people from across the sub-region who have enrolled in various schools and universities in Ghana.

In these trying times for the people of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the natural inclination for most countries and businesses have been to stay away from these countries. Even ships have refused to dock at the shores of these countries, preventing much-needed aid and medicine from reaching these people.

President John Mahama of Ghana, who also doubles as the ECOWAS Chairman, has, however, insisted on helping the unfortunate people of the three worst-affected countries saying “isolation is not the solution”.

The President and his government accordingly, have worked with the World Health Organisation and the United Nations to establish Ghana as the logistics base for the international fight against Ebola in West Africa.

This makes the nation the centre from where all efforts would be coordinated to help deal with the Ebola disease. The President also recently visited Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea to give them the morale boost and support needed to fight the disease whilst presenting some relief items to these countries.

Bracing for the worst  
The Ghanaian authorities have been preparing for the worst, perhaps taking a cue from neighbouring Nigeria, where authorities have managed to contain the spread of Ebola in spite of its population size and density.

The Ghana government has voted some GHC30m ($10m) to prepare the nation for any eventuality. Screening exercises at the nation’s entry points have also been intensified for early detection of the disease.

The Noguchi Memorial Research Centre, one of the foremost research institutions on the continent, has also stated that it is adequately resourced to carry out tests to detect the disease in any reported or suspected case in Ghana.

In the end, Ghana might not be able to prevent Ebola from entering its shores, but the measures that have been put in place to deal with any reported case is what gives people hope that Ebola will not triumph over Ghana.

Before we went to press, the US President Barack Obama announced that he would be sending 3,000 troops to the affected West African states. It is likely that the troops will work with medical professionals to try and curb the spread of the disease.

It was also announced that a vaccine is being fast tracked and that it will be available to medical personnel by the end of the year. At the time of going to press, some medical professionals in the West had been injected with a very mild form of the virus to stimulate antibodies.

They were under close observation to monitor the effectiveness of the vaccine as well as any side effects.