Three more die from Meningitis in Upper West Region

Three more persons have died from meningitis in the Upper West region, bringing the total number of deaths in the region this year to 43.

The three were among some 15 new cases of the endemic recorded in the region, increasing the total number of infected persons from 258 to 273.

The outgoing Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Osei Kuffuor Afreh, disclosed this in Wa today when he was briefing the Deputy Minister of Health, Bernard Okoe Boye and some officials from the Ministry of Health who are on a two-day working visit to the region.

“We currently have 273 suspected cases of meningitis in the region. 62 results received so far are confirmed to be meningitis,” he said.

The outgoing director also disclosed that about 226 infected persons have been treated and discharged.

Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye who is the Member of Parliament for the Ledzokuku constituency and his team are in the region to access the meningitis situation and to interact with key stakeholders on how to bring the disease under control.

He bemoaned the rising incidence of meningitis in the region but said government is very much concerned and will work assiduously to control it.

“Government is very much concerned about what is happening. The hon. minister of health asked me to come and do a close review of the situation and to monitor the success or otherwise of the interventions so far,” he added.

The lawmaker thanked health workers in the Upper West region “for managing the two strains; COVID 19 and meningitis”.

Deaths from CSM outbreak up north ‘tragic’ – Akufo-Addo

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is unhappy with recent Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) related deaths recorded in the country.

He has thus made a case for the tackling of CSM head-on to prevent such deaths in the wake of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“The recent, tragic CSM outbreak, with over forty (40) deaths, has reaffirmed the need for ready access to such infectious disease control centres, even though, in our time, nobody should die of the disease. Early reporting is what is required, and I implore everybody to heed this call,’ the president said.

President Akufo-Addo made the remark on Sunday when he addressed the nation on measures put in place by the government to curb the spread of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Ghana.

So far over 400 CSM cases have been recorded in the regions up north with the Upper East Region recording seven deaths.

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) recently attributed the challenges with tackling the disease to the lack of financial resources.

A team of experts were on Thursday, April 16, 2020, dispatched to the Upper West Region to help fight the CSM cases.

New strain of CSM

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) had disclosed that the current outbreak of Meningitis in the Upper West Region is caused by a new strain of bacteria that has no vaccine.

The Ghana Health Service, however, said even though there is no vaccine for this strain causing the outbreak, there is an effective treatment upon early reporting and initiation of the said treatment.

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