Coronavirus, a litmus test of our healthcare system

The World since time immemorial, has been battling with diseases. Pandemic diseases are the most dreaded, periodically hitting every part of the globe in varying degrees of virulence. This has resulted in billions of mortalities, millions of morbidities and a multiplicity of deformities.

A pandemic disease is one that spreads globally and infects a large number of people (https://www.wired.com/story/whats-a-pandemic)

Some of the most brutal pandemic killers in human history includes, Cholera, bubonic plague, smallpox, and influenza. One of the most recent pandemics was the swine flu(H1N1) of 2009, which perished between 151,700 and 575,400 people worldwide (CDC, 2010).This pandemic was however of a short duration, lasting for approximately 16 months.

Just as the world heaved a sigh of relief of conquering the 2009 flu pandemic, an Ebola epidemic thwacked Western Africa. The first cases were recorded in Guinea in December 2013 and later spread to neighbouring Liberia and Sierra Leone-causing major loss of life, huge displacement of people and properties and a disruption of socioeconomic stability.

Barely a few months ago, in December 2019, in the region of Wuhan, China, another "Monster"-the corona virus, reared its ugly head. Perhaps the most disastrous of all the pandemics. With a death toll tantamount to about a dozen of aircrafts crushing and killing all passengers on board. In March 2020, the world health organization (WHO) rebranded the disease as "Covid-19” and declared it a pandemic. At the early days of the outbreak in China, other countries were adamant and going about their normal businesses and unperturbed about the situation. As if to say, "it's their mess, allow them to clean it up". Little did anyone know the entire earth will be engulfed and thrown into a turmoil. Hardly did anyone also remember that "a disease threat anywhere is a disease threat everywhere".

In the midst of all this pestilence and tribulations, one is tempted to ask, what has become of our Health system? Has our health system become overwhelmed and non-responsive suddenly?

A health system is defined by Pallipedia, an online dictionary as, all organizations, people, and resources whose primary intent is to promote, restore, or maintain health.



A robust health system is one that is sensitive, proactive and responsive to any global health threat. Unfortunately, our health system is a lame one. It is neither good enough in managing public health occurrences nor better in preventing them. Most of the diseases occurring now have occurred sometimes before, hence our health system is not new to them, yet failed to develop an antidote to curtail the outbreaks. As the adage goes "once bitten, twice shy." But our health system doesn't heed to this proverb. For it has been bitten severally, yet it never shied.

Our health system is only good enough in listing the top killer diseases yet cannot develop vaccines ready in stock to prevent them. Vaccines are only manufactured after a disease has claimed million lives.

The lassitude nature of the health system is not limited to only developed countries. The situation in developing countries of which Ghana is a part is lamentable.

Take for instance, in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak, the Ghana health care system is unable to provide enough basic personal protective equipment (PPEs) such as nasal masks, gloves, hand sanitizers, hand washing equipment, test kits etc.

Besides, there's no health insurance cover for health workers at the forefront.

The country doesn't have any isolation center for treating infectious diseases. Infectious diseases are usually mixed up with other non-infectious disease clients in same hospitals and health facilities, posing danger to these clients and their families.

Again, the country has only one robust referral laboratory for testing blood samples. This laboratory is in the southern part of the country (the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research). Samples from other parts of the country especially the north must travel miles or days before they are tested. Indicating that, the results are usually delayed.

Apart from the long distance the samples have to travel, the transporters of the samples are at a high risk of infecting themselves.

Statistics from CDC(2019) shows that, almost 70% of countries in the world remain under-prepared to manage and control health emergencies.

The Covid-19 is a wake-up call to all the national and international stakeholders. Multilateral organization such as: WHO, World Bank, UNICEF, UNDP and Bilateral organization such as: USAID, USPHS and CDC should be on red alert and ready to accurately respond to emergencies.

It's high time the Ghana health service and the ministry of health kept in place rapid emergency response measures to forestall any future emergencies. The country is in a dire need of more infectious disease referral laboratories for testing samples.

May God help us all, cry the beloved World.