It is good that Ghana detected the Monkeypox in the country early enough, a Public Health Expert at Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, Dr Banda Khalifa, has said.
He called on the country to scale up surveillance to ensure that other cases are detected and handled appropriately.
Speaking on the mid day news on TV3 Thursday June 10, he said Monkeypox is not as severe as other viral diseases.
“It is a good thing that the country has detected this case early enough. It wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when we were going to detect it because as we can see the cases have been going up for sometime now.
“I wont say we have to be worried now because Monkeypox is not as severe as other viral disease. The rate of spread is not as fast as Covid-19. It is a good thing we know we have some cases, we just have to strengthen our surveillance system and then detect them as early as possible.”
Ghana has recorded five cases of Monkeypox in the Eastern, Bono and Greater Accra regions.
This was confirmed by the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, at a press briefing on Wednesday, June 8.
He said “Monkeypox is a disease that is transmitted from animals to man. It is very endemic in Nigeria and Cameroon but it is generally in West Africa. From infected animals, rats, monkeys etc. and then infect humans. Human to human transmission can also occur but there has to be very closed skin to skin contact, face to face contact or mouth to skin contact, these are the areas or that is how it can be transmitted from human to human.
“So far, since the outbreak in Europe we have tested twelve suspected cases in Ghana since 24th of May. Currently, we have confirmed five cases in three regions, Eastern, Bono and Greater Accra. No deaths has occurred. One of the cases has been recorded with a Ghanaian who traveled to the United States from Ghana.”
By Laud Nartey|3news.com|Ghana