Private medical practitioners want to help deal with Ebola

The Society of Private Medical and Dental Practitioners, Ghana, has called for a consultative meeting with the National Ebola Response Team to integrate private health care providers into the national response programme.

This was contained in a press statement issued by the society at the end of its 36th Annual General Meeting (AGM), which was read by the National President of the Society, Dr K. Odoi-Agyarko at a press conference at Koforidua.

The meeting was theme: “Neglected Tropical Diseases” and was attended by members of the society across the country.

The Society also called on the Ministry of Health to increase funding for the neglected tropical diseases programme to replace the withdrawn donor support.

This, they said would sustain the fall in the prevalence of such diseases in the country.

The society said it had decided to develop the capacity of its members to increase their competence in the recognition, diagnosis, treatment, notification and referral of neglected tropical diseases.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever (Ebola HF) is one of numerous Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers. It is a severe, often fatal disease in humans and nonhuman primates (such as monkeys, gorillas, and chimpanzees).

Ebola HF is caused by infection with a virus of the family Firoviridae, genus Ebola virus. When infection occurs, symptoms usually begin abruptly. The first Ebola virus species was discovered in 1976 in what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo near the Ebola River.

Since then, outbreaks have appeared sporadically.

According to an AFP report, sourcing the World Health Organisation, since March, there have been more than 1,200 cases of Ebola and more than 650 deaths in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The disease has also been reported in Nigeria.

The report says Doctors without Borders (MSF) has warned that the crisis is set to get worse and that there is no overarching strategy to handle the crisis.

But the Government of Ghana says it is working feverishly to keep the disease off its borders and to manage it should there be an outbreak.