Ghana To Establish An Infectious Disease Center

The Deputy Health Minister, Dr Victor Bampoe has disclosed that the government is sourcing funds from the World Bank to establish an infectious disease center.

This was during a Symposium organized in Accra by the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), on Ebola threat to the country.

The symposium was under the theme, "Ebola; have we gone to sleep?"

The Symposium saw the World Health Organisation representative to Ghana Dr Magda Robalo who warned that the Ebola threat is still real despite a significant drop in figure. in liberia and sierra leone .

According to her, "we should remain vigilant. This Ebola outbreak is far from over. We must sustain our support to the affected countries until the outbreak is over but we also need to continue with preparedness in non-affected countries. In the face of increasing complacency and growing fatigue, we should not stop the preparedness activities we have started".

Dr Kwabena Adusei Poku President of the Ghana Medical Association,

called on government to establish an infectious disease center that will cater for all viral diseases including Ebola.

According to him, even though Ghana has not recorded an Ebola case yet, an infectious disease center can be used for research, training and other services, saying "when Ebola comes, it may be too late so we are saying that lets prepare".

"There are some countries like US who never thought that Ebola will come but they prepared. We are here at times just common maize that we need to grow and eat, we have troubles. If we have the centers and we are not using them, we might use them for other diseases."