Following the declaration of a public health emergency of the monkey pox disease in Africa by the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Ghana Health Service is gearing up to activate its surveillance system across the country.

The surveillance system will enable the GHS to detect early cases and provide treatment to avoid outbreaks, according to the Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Franklin Asiedu Bekoe.

Furthermore, Dr Bekoe stated that the GHS will work to raise awareness about the monkey pox disease so individuals will seek emergency treatments if they suspect they have been affected.

"We are going to activate our surveillance system. We are actually going to make it in such a way that there is high awareness among Ghanaians so they do not assume every rash on their body is chicken-pox. So, we are going to improve on our coordination," he said.

In a report by myjoyonline.com, Dr Asiedu Bekoe cautioned Ghanaians to be wary of any rashes that may inflict them, while citing the last time Ghana recorded such cases.

"In Ghana, our last case was in April 2023 and so far as we have had some in the past we are going to activate our system on such cases and manage them," he added.

The World Health Organisation has raised concerns over the alarming speed at which a new strand of mpox has been spreading.

More than 13,700 cases and 450 deaths have been recorded in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the WHO report states.

The virus, which can cause lesions across the whole body, has spread to other African countries, including Burundi, the Central African Republic (CAR) Kenya and Rwanda.

The disease is reported to exhibit symptoms like fever, muscle aches and lesions across the body, and can be fatal if left untreated.

MAG/AE