The Volta Regional Health Directorate has designated the Regional Hospital and five district hospitals to receive Ebola related cases.

The region has also taken custody of 20 sets of preventive kits for distribution among the designated hospitals with an emergency standby at the national level, Dr Joseph Nuertey, the Volta Regional Director of Health, told the media at Ho.

The District Hospitals are Hohoe, Sogakope, Ketu-South, Jasikan and Nkwanta.

Frontline health managers at all levels including disease control fficers were also being taken through case management procedures.

Dr Nuertey urged the media to spearhead the crusade to educate the public about the disease, measures to take to prevent it and how to respond should it occur.

He warned family members against handling corpses of relatives especially if they died suddenly.

He said hand-washing with soap and with chlorine is the most effective, cheapest and safest preventive measure against the disease.

Dr Nuertey explained that the travel history of persons who vomit blood and bleed from the nose must be known because other diseases also lead to these.

He advised the public to disregard claims that bitter cola could protect them against the disease.

“What we know is that there is no cure, no vaccines, no treatment,” Dr Nuertey said.

He said there was need for extra vigilance and strict observance of preventive measures in the Volta Region because of fluid movement between the region and Togo through several entry points and the fact that the disease had found its way into Nigeria.

Dr Nuertey said the “Ebola virus is not in Ghana” and that research had shown that cave bats in the Brong-Ahafo Region have anti-bodies against the disease, nevertheless hunters and farmers should not touch any game found dead in the bush.

He said avoiding hand-shakes was found to protect one against the disease citing a community in Congo where children survived the disease because they did not shake hands while majority of adults died from the disease.