100-bed infectious disease facility will meet ISO accreditation – Noguchi Virologist

The facility manager at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Jacob Arthur Quarm is confident that the 100-bed infectious disease isolation and treatment facility being constructed at the Ga East Hospital will meet international certification requirements.

Mr. Quarm was speaking during a visit to the project site to discuss and develop concepts for laboratories within the facility.

The virologist, who has been working at the Noguchi Institute at the University of Ghana since 1991, indicated that he was astonished by the scale of the project and the speed at which it is being constructed. He said he is overwhelmed with joy because with the facility, Ghana will at long last get its first infectious diseases centre.

“I was a little bit surprised when I heard that it was being built and I'm waking up to the fact that it is actually physically here and it gives me a lot of joy to know that in this time and era we are waking up to the challenges of health and trying to separate the different types of challenges and making infrastructural provisions to be able to achieve safe healthcare for everybody,” he said.

He congratulated the Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund for the initiative which is delivering Ghana’s first infectious disease isolation and treatment facility.

“They've done a very good job and it is very timely and the pace at which the contractors are working is also very good," he stressed.

The first infectious disease isolation and treatment centre in Ghana is scheduled to be ready for use by the end of May. It is being built under the auspices of the Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund with donations from corporate organisations and individuals. It will initially be used to treat critically ill COVID-19 patients and when the pandemic has blown over, it will also be used to isolate and treat people suffering from other infectious diseases.

The Ghana Covid-19 Private Sector Fund is seeking more funding to be able to construct similar facilities in Takoradi, Kumasi and Tamale in the foreseeable future.

The Ghana COVID-19 Private Sector Fund is an initiative by private business people who set it up with a seed fund of One Million Ghana Cedis, while campaigning to raise at least One Hundred Million Ghana Cedis from local and international businesses as well as the general public to aid the fight against Covid-19 in Ghana.