The Noguchi Memorial Institute of Medical Research (NMIMR) has been selected as the research laboratory centre for the testing of the corona virus that causes Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).
The virus is similar to the one that causes common cold, which started in China. It has already claimed hundreds of lives in China, Hong Kong, Thailand, Canada, Singapore and other Asian countries since it appeared a few months ago.
The Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr George Amofa said the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the GHS have put in place a surveillance management system to monitor the trend of the disease internationally before it spread to Africa.
He said with technical support from the World Health Organisation (WHO, special health teams have been trained on the general infection control, how to detect and follow up cases.
He said hospitals have been designated for the quarantine of people, who would be diagnosed as having the virus. He added that there are a quiet number of protective gadgets like gloves, masks and protective clothing while orders have been placed for those that were not available.
Answering questions on the two people who were quarantined for having the symptoms of the disease, Dr Amofa, allayed the fears of the public saying that the two people had no symptoms of SARS".
He said the two were a married couple that had arrived from Japan he said their investigations revealed that the man had a different chronic disease, which was not related to SARS.
