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The Ghana Red Cross Society, has engaged 40 volunteers in the
Greater-Accra Region, to embark on sensitization programmes on Ebola in the region.
Mr Eric Asamoah Darko, Greater-Accra Regional Manager of the Society, disclosed this during a training workshop of the volunteers in Accra.
The programme was organized by the Ghana Red Cross with financial support from the Swiss Red Cross Society.
Mr Darko said although Ebola disease is yet to claim lives in Ghana, it has become necessary to embark on measures to prevent it, especially as it has affected many people in neighbouring Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea.
The volunteers will be required to move from schools to mosques and churches, to impart knowledge to the congregation on how Ebola is contracted, and how it can be prevented.
Apart from the volunteers in Accra, many more will be recruited nationwide, to engage in massive education drive on The Ebola Virus Disease (EVD).
Because the Ebola disease evokes fear in people, the volunteers have been taken through how to sensitize the people to receive the message, without reacting with fear.
Dr Isabelle Guess of the Swiss Red Cross Emergency Unit, shared her experience during her duties in Liberia, and asked Ghanaian volunteers to follow the rules governing work on Ebola.
She said Ebola is a deadly disease capable of causing the death of its victims, yet it can be prevented.
She added that Ebola is contracted, among others, through direct contact with body fluids, blood, saliva, sperm, urine, skin-piercing instruments used by infected persons, un-sterilized injections and contact with infected persons, and those who are dead through Ebola disease.
She said the symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, joint and muscle pain, vomiting, sometimes with blood, and diarrhea, blood spots in the eyes, blood in coughs or stool and bleeding from the nose and other parts of the body.
To prevent the Ebola disease, by protecting oneself and family from the disease, one needs to among other things: avoid body fluids of persons showing signs of the disease; protect oneself by using gloves, goggles and masks; not shaking hands with persons showing signs of the Ebola; not touching or handling dead or live animals such as bats, monkeys, antelopes with bare hands; washing of hands regularly with soap under clean running water, especially when there are confirmed cases within one's household or community ; cooking all foods very well before eating, especially bush meat.
She advised that persons showing signs of the disease, should be rushed immediately to the nearest health facility, adding that persons who die of the disease must not be touched.
She further advised that all suspected cases of Ebola must be reported immediately to the nearest health facilities.
Dr Guess said during an outbreak, those at higher risk of infection, include: family members or those in close contact with the infected people; health workers directly involved in managing Ebola cases; mourners with direct contact with the bodies of the deceased as part of the burial ceremonies
