Media to be circumspect on meningitis reportage

Dr Franklin Asiedu Bekoe, Head of Surveillance of the Ghana Health Service, has advised the media to be circumspect in reporting on the issue of Pneumococcal Meningitis in the country.

He said because meningitis was endemic in Ghana, report of one case of meningitis does not constitute an outbreak and that should not cause panic, though enhanced surveillance was required to prevent additional cases.

He noted that bacterial meningitis is caused by several pathogens but Neisseria meningitides (Nm), Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae type 'B' represent the triad causing over 80 per cent of all cases of bacterial meningitis.

Speaking at an emergency technical committee meeting of the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) on meningitis outbreak in Ghana, he said meningitis cases are actually monitored by what they call Alert and Epidemic Thresholds which are determined using the population of the locality.

Dr Bekoe said in the reported meningitis cases in Brong Ahafo, Northern and Ashanti Regions, the isolated pathogens are mixed including Streptococcus pneumonia, Neisseria meningitis W135 and nesseria meningitides type C.

An outbreak of pneumococcal meningitis occurred in December 2015 in Brohani and Seikwa communities in the Tain District of Brong Ahafo Region, which initially affected 31 people of which nine died.

Dr Bekoe said the causative agent was confirmed as Streptococcus pneumonia, response measures were initiated and the outbreak abated.

“Following this, there have been increased reports of meningitis cases due to the same organism in Wenchi, Techiman North and South Nkoraza and Atebubu Districts of the Brong Ahafo Region. Bole District in the Northern Region also reported 16 cases with four deaths.

“Other districts, namely, Techiman Municipal, Sene West in Brong Ahafo Region and Sawla-Tuna-Kalba in the Northern Region have reported cases of meningitides serogroup W135, “he said.

He said those focal outbreaks bring to the fore the changing epidemiology of meningitis in the country vis-à-vis gaps in preparedness and response of the health system to outbreaks.

Dr Bekoe noted that the eight cases reported in Ashanti Region were not different from the numbers recorded in 2015.

Those report cases, he said were sporadic and were from six districts in the Region including Ejisu Juabeng, Offinso Municipal, Afigya Kwabre, Asante Akim Central, Adansi North and Ahafo Ano South.

“Currently there is no outbreak of meningitis in Ashanti Region, the organisms isolated in the reported cases are actually Neisseria meningitis type C, which is very different from that causing Pneumococcal meningitis,” he added.

He therefore assured the public that the Disease Control Unit of the Ministry of Health and its partners were in control of the issue and there was no cause for panic.

Dr Samuel Sackey, Chairman of the Technical Committee, said people were becoming aware of the disease and what was left was to reduce deaths by assisting the Disease Control Unit of the Ministry of Health to curb the situation.