General News of Thursday, 28 August 2014

Source: tv3network.com

Ebola prevention: Only 800 out of 10,000 PPEs received by health workers

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) says out of the 10,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) promised by government in the fight against Ebola, only 800 have been received so far.

The Service has, as a result, called on all to help government in efforts to prevent an outbreak of the disease in Ghana.

“For [Ghana] Health [Service], we are doing what the country itself supports,” Dr Ebenezer Appiah Denkyira, the Director General of the Service, told TV3’s Wendy Laryea on Wednesday, August 27.

Speaking on the sidelines of a workshop to train health workers over Ebola preventive measures, Dr Denkyira said personally “I think corporate bodies’ reception is not enough.”

He called for a multi-faceted approach to tackling a possible outbreak of the disease, insinuating that corporate bodies can help government secure more of the PPEs for health workers.

Minister of Health Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah told TV3 last Monday that more of the PPEs have been ordered from Geneva.

Ghana is yet to record any cases of the deadly virus.

Since its outbreak in West Africa, over 1,400 lives have been lost.

Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been the hardest hit countries.

According to the Director General of GHS, education on the disease has been adopted as the foremost weapon in the fight against the disease because “when people know about it they will not be scared.”