Two officials of the Central Laboratory of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital have been ordered to proceed on compulsory leave for 21 days, for travelling to Liberia without the consent of the authorities.

This was after they had been quarantined for a number of days to be screened for the deadly Ebola disease.

Liberia is one of the countries hard hit by the Ebola pandemic.

The decision is to avert the possible transmission of the disease to the other staff.

The management has also initiated investigation into their mission in Liberia, and on whose ticket or invitation they went there.

Speaking at a press briefing in Accra yesterday, to create awareness on the Ebola disease, a biomedical scientist at the Central Laboratory of the hospital, Alhaji yunusah Osman, who represented the Chief Imam at the programme, said on hearing that the officers had arrived from Liberia, staff at the unit became apprehensive about the danger of them possibly contracting and transmitting the disease, and consequently informed the authorities.

Alhaji Osman said the unit held a meeting and decided that, the officers should be quarantined and subsequently, asked to proceed on leave for 21 days.

The 21 days, he said, was the gestation period for infection to manifest, adding that it was a measure to avert any transmission of the disease.

“The disease spreads very fast and there is the need for us all to join forces to deal with it before it gets out of hand,” he stated.

Alhaji Osman said even though Ghana has not recorded any case of Ebola, it is important that adequate measures are put in place to safeguard the lives of the people.

The Project Co-ordinator of The Light Foundation (TLF), organizers of the programme, Hawa Suleiman Issah, said the event was to create awareness on the threat that the disease posed to nations, and the need to put adequate measures in place to deal with it in the event of an outbreak.

She said apart from travelling to six regions to sensitize the people on the effects, the organization has also translated hundreds of educational materials on the disease into braille for students of the Akropong School of Blind.