The Deputy Minister of Health, Dr. Bernard Oko-Boye says government will systematically make available the needed resources to fight meningitis epidemic in Upper West and the COVID-19 pandemic across the country.
He made the pledge on the first leg of his two-day duty of the Upper West Region.
Dr Bernard Oko-Boye who was accompanied by Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, was in Upper West to have full appreciation of the situation relating to cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM) and COVID-19.
The Deputy Health Minister’s itinerary included courtesy calls on the Regional Minister Dr. Hafiz Bin Salih and the Wa Naa, Naa Fuseini Seidu Pelpuo.
The Upper Regional Director of Health Services, Dr Osei Kuffour Afreh equally briefed Dr Oko-Boye on the COVID-19 and CSM situation in the region. He announced that 226 CSM cases have been treated and discharged at the various health facilities in Upper West with four people on admission currently.
During the interactions, it also came to light that the region has so far lost 43 people to CSM out of the total 273 suspected cases.
Dr Oko-Boye’s duty tour also saw him in Jirapa and Nandom where he met political and health authorities.
The Deputy Health Minister interacted with health personnel at the St. Joseph’s Hospital in Jirapa as well as those at St. Theresa’s Hospital in Nandom. He commented on the CSM situation in Upper West vis-à-vis the WHO threshold.
“So far we have received briefing that shows we have recorded 273 cases in the Upper West Region of cerebrospinal meningitis and we had 43 fatalities, i.e. 43 deaths that come to about 15.7% of the cases. Now, when you look at the WHO threshold for fatalities, you usually shouldn’t do more than 10%. So once you do more than 10%, it means that you have to take a critical look at the situation. And some Municipalities like Nadowli, Nandom, Jirapa are the places that recorded cases over the period.”
“Way back in February [2020], somewhere February 25 is when the surveillance team picked that they were getting cases and some deaths from meningitis,” he announced.
According to Dr Oko-Boye, the laboratory results have shown us two things: “First of all, there are few that were caused by strep pneumoniae, which is a bacterium that can cause meningitis but what is interesting is that, most of the cases, about 70% of the laboratory results showed that they have been caused by a type of bacterium which we all know is called Neisseria meningitidis. But the strain, the variant or the strain that is causing the deaths came out to be Sero ‘X’.”
Commenting on development of a vaccine for Serotype-X, Dr Oko-Boye said its development is usually a multi-national effort and approach. He continued that government that has to liaise with WHO, the West African Health Organisation, UNICEF and other partners before scientists are assembled to start working on developing a particular type of vaccine. Stigmatization of COVID-19 patients and late reporting to hospital with CSM cases were identified as some of the challenges in managing the diseases.
Story by: Emmanuel Mensah-Abludo.
