The Medical Officer for Cape Coast Stadium Clinic, Dr. Jesse Assan has advocated for more public education on the condition to equip the public with enough information as they play their role in helping to curb the spread of the monkey pox disease in the country.
According to him, even as some cases are being recorded in the country, there is the need for the public to know more about the disease so as to protect themselves from contracting the disease.
“Is extremely important that the public is made aware of this condition-how it comes about and all issues related to it,” he said.
His comment comes at the back of a press briefing held in Accra on Wednesday, June 8 where the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye urged the general public to be alert as five cases of the Monkey pox have been recorded in the country.
Speaking on ATL FM’s Atlantic Wave, Dr. Assan urged the public not to delay in reporting suspected cases of Monkey pox at any health facility.
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He said, “To protect yourself, there is also the need to isolate or report somebody who you think might have a rash with or without fever.”
“…relative to even COVID, the death toll is higher so it is extremely important that we report such cases,” he adds.
On his part, indicating how Monkey pox is different from chickenpox the Deputy Director of Health Services at the University of Cape Coast, Dr. James Prah noted that unlike chickenpox, the swelling of lymph nodes is common in Monkey pox.
He therefore believes that in terms of how capable Ghana is in tackling the disease, the country lacks trained health personnel to help with surveillance.
“The Director General of the Ghana Health Service says everybody should be on the alert but I can assure you that there are many clinicians who know very little about Monkey pox. People have not been trained…lab technicians have not being trained,” he stresses.
He says they need the training so that they will know how to take samples for Monkey pox “because the sampling for Monkey pox for instance is not blood. It is not like COVID that you take nasopharyngeal swab. You have to take samples from the lesions that happens because we don’t have the antibody testing now for you to use blood for the testing and people must be trained on how this should be done…”
SOURCE: ROSEMOND ASMAH & DORCAS AKPAKUDI/ATLFMNEWS
