Tuesday, 8 July 2014
The Public Relations Officer of the Ghana Immigration Service, Francis Palm Deti has said new arrangements have been put in place at major entry points to screen foreigners visiting the country.
He said at the Elubo border, personnel of the Ports Health Authority (PHA) have started carrying out initial screening of passengers onboard buses before they enter the country.
According to him, it is a way of ensuring that possible carriers of the deadly Ebola virus which allegedly killed an American Monday afternoon at the Nyaho Clinic are identified and immediately handled properly.
Meanwhile, as a result of the American’s death, Ghana’s Health Ministry met with stakeholders Tuesday to strategize on how to contain the deadly Ebola virus, should it break out in the country.
The man arrived from Guinea on Sunday and reported at the infirmary for medical attention.
Mr Deti said there were no visible quarantine zones available yet to keep suspected carriers of the virus but assured the PHA would have such a facility somewhere around the entry point to serve as a useful hub to detain persons who have all kinds of ailments.
He said prohibited immigrants who refused to submit to medical screening when needed would be put back on the flight refused entry into Ghana.
Initial tests run on the American at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR), according to hospital sources, was inconclusive because the officials used the wrong reagent (chemical).
Hospital sources told Joy News “the test should have taken Noguchi not more than five hours.”
The final results of his blood samples are yet to be made public. Myjoyonline.com also learnt that the samples were likely to be flown to Atlanta in the United States for further testing.
There have been some 467 deaths out of 759 cases reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia as at June 30, this year.
The Public Relations Officer of the Health Ministry, Tony Goodman earlier told Myjoyonline.com that the Ministry had requested for some reagents from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to help the investigations.
Chairman of the Health Committee in Parliament, Joseph Yileh Chireh hopes to see a stronger collaboration among the agencies to prevent an outbreak of the disease. http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=316045
