Ghana Health Service worried over deadly disease outbreaks

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has disclosed that disease outbreaks are becoming common in the country.

It explained that for the past three to eight years, the country had recorded about two to four outbreaks, quite a lot compared to the past.

It attributed this to the settlement of people closer to where animals lived and urbanisation, which had seen a lot of people travel from one place to the other , living in close proximity or a situation of overcrowding.

“When you infiltrate the habitat of animals, you tend to get their pathogens. They have their own natural viruses that live with them.

So the more you infiltrate, you tend to have easy transfer of those viruses to you,” the Director of the Public Health Division of the GHS, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, explained.

Dr Asiedu-Bekoe was, however, quick to indicate that what had been good for Ghana in all these, was its capacity to detect and confirm the outbreaks early, and the fact that it had an integrated system in handling them when they occurred, contrasted with other African countries.

“So, though we have got a lot of outbreaks, you know it doesn’t become large outbreaks. Our system is very sensitive,” he said confidently.

Noguchi anniversary

Dr Asiedu-Bekoe was speaking last Thursday in the last of the series of lectures organised by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) to mark its 45th anniversary.

The theme for the anniversary is; “45 years of impactful research for sustainable global health.” Dr Asiedu-Bekoe was speaking on the topic:

“The impact of NMIMR on the GHS Disease Surveillance and Emergency Response System.”

Animal habitats

On disease outbreaks occurring due to settlement in animal habitats, he said they had seen this particularly at Damongo, where they had the Mole Park, explaining that a lot of the monkeys there had the Yellow Fever virus, and so people who went there but did not have their immunity intact, tended to get infected with the virus.

“All of these factors lead to the transfer of infections, particularly viruses, hormones and so on. So that’s one reason why we are getting this,” he emphasised.

Outbreaks

Dr Asiedu-Bekoe stated that there were a lot of factors responsible for the outbreaks that occurred in the country, which he mentioned to include overcrowding, poor WASH conditions, poor living conditions, increase in susceptible population, mass population displacement and poor public health response measures.

He mentioned some of the outbreaks that had occurred in Ghana over the past few years to include cholera in 2018, 2019, 2024; dengue-fever in 2023, 2024; Lassa Fever in 2023; Marburg in 2022; Meningitis in 2020; Yellow Fever and Mont in 2022, 2023.

Noguchi’s role

Dr Asiedu-Bekoe praised NMIMR for the impact it has had on public health and disease outbreaks in the country.

He mentioned them to include confirmation of pathogens, sharing of logistics and equipment with GHS, training and building capacity of GHS staff and joint collaboration in research with GHS.

The acting Director of NMIMR, Prof Michael Ofori, said an important aspect of their work at the institute was to support the Ministry of Health in special diagnostic areas, and over the years they had done excellently in that vein.