CSM now under control, no longer at epidemic level – Okoe-Boye

The Deputy Minister of Health has assured that the Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) outbreak in Ghana is now under control.

Dr. Bernard Okoe-Boye said strides have been made in curtailing the disease, adding that CSM is no longer at an epidemic level.

CSM has been most severe in the Northern part of the country, with over 400 cases of meningitis recorded so far.

The Upper West region alone has recorded 43 deaths, with a further seven casualties recorded in the Upper East region.

Addressing Parliament on Thursday after a three-day working visit to the Upper West Region to assess the situation, Dr, Okoe Boye said CSM is under control.

“Mr. Speaker, I am glad to report that the situation with CSM is under control,” the Deputy Health Minister said.

“A visit to some affected municipalities in the Upper West Region revealed that currently, only four cases of meningitis are being attended to in the region.

“The disease scale shows that we are no more in the epidemic level. Sustaining this achievement requires continuous education, and that is ongoing.”

In another development, though, the MP for Daffiama Bussie Issa in the Upper West Region, Dr. Sebastian Sandaare, has accused Dr. Okoe Boye of misleading Parliament.

According to him, the explanations given by the Deputy Health Minister shows that he’s not well informed about the true situation on the ground.

Speaking to Accra-based Citi FM, Dr. Sandare said: “I’ll say that his statement was not really according to what is on the ground and according to what he really understands meningitis to be. It was an issue of trying to really come in to educate the public.

“Because I realised that there was some bit of misunderstanding between what meningitis is and what CSM really is and my colleague didn’t present the facts as we understand. He tried to equate CSM to meningitis but what we understand is that we have an outbreak of meningitis in the Upper West Region and normally within that context, you can talk about CSM. When you use CSM, you’re mainly talking about meningitis which is caused by a specific organism,” he added.

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