Miss Charity Calai, Headmistress of the Leklebi Senior High School, has explained that the recent medical examination of some students in the school was to meet admission requirements.

She told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in an interview that the laboratory tests were therefore not in any way connected to the Ebola vaccine tryouts, planned to be undertaken in the Hohoe Municipal Area.

Miss Calai, therefore, urged the parents and the general public to disregard wild rumours that the team which visited the school to take blood samples, was part of the Ebola vaccine trial team.

She explained that it was mandatory under Ghana Education Service (GES) directives that all students entering Senior High Schools provided medical reports on themselves.

Miss Calai said because students somehow “are unable to provide the reports due to the short period between admissions and reporting and also the spurious reports presented by some of them, the GES decided to appoint companies to do the examinations on campuses”.

She said the students had been billed for those services.

Miss Calai said delays by the GES in appointing companies for good reason, resulted in the backlog of students eligible for the examination, which the company had come to do, and certainly had nothing to do with the Ebola vaccine trials.

She said tests conducted were, HB, Sickly, Blood Group, Hearing and Sight.

Miss Calai said these were important tests that should inform what steps school authorities could take with regard to individual students, during medical emergencies.