Mpox: Ghana Implements Screening for Travelers

Chinomso Sunday

5 days ago

Ghana’s Health Ministry has implemented measures to prevent the outbreak of Mpox.
Outlined by Dr. Franklin Asiedu Bekoe, the Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service, the doctor mentioned that travellers arriving the country via land, sea and airports will soon undergo screening — a move aimed at detecting cases and curbing the potential spread of the disease.

“The travelers will undergo screening for us to know they don’t have Mpox at the borders, land, sea, and airports. There will be guidelines at the hospitals for the doctors to know how to handle such cases. So we have an updated national plan,” he said during an interview on Adom FM’s Dwaso Nsem program.

Health workers collect samples for testing at the Mpox treatment centre at Nyiragongo General Referral Hospital, north of Goma on August 17, 2024. – With around 16,000 cases recorded since the beginning of the year, the DRC is the focus and epicentre of the epidemic that led the World Health Organisation (WHO) to trigger its highest level of alert at the international level on Wednesday. The province of South Kivu records around 350 new cases per week, according to Dr Justin Bengehya, epidemiologist at the provincial health division of South Kivu. Goma, capital of the province of North Kivu, almost surrounded by an armed rebellion and where hundreds of thousands of displaced people are crammed into makeshift camps, fears a large-scale spread due to promiscuity. (Photo by GUERCHOM NDEBO / AFP)

On August 14, 2024, the World Health Organisation declared Mpox disease a global health emergency after confirming 2030 cases and 13 deaths in Africa this year.

The Mpox disease, which affected DR Congo, has now spread to previously unaffected countries: Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda.

The recent outbreak of the disease has been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO after a new variant of the virus was identified.

Nigeria has documented 39 cases of monkeypox as of August 16, with no reported fatalities.

Monkeypox has also been reported in Sweden, Europe, Pakistan, and Southeast Asia, marking its spread outside of the African continent.