Lack Of Funds Hindering Fight Against Meningitis – U/W Health Director

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the Upper West Region has attributed the lack of financial support as a major hindrance to the fight against Meningitis in the area.

258 infections and 40 deaths have so far recorded in the region.

GHS on Thursday, April 16, 2020, dispatched a team of experts to the region to help fight the increasing numbers of Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM).

The region has already commenced an audit of the CSM deaths to enable the Ghana Health Service review treatment protocols.

The Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, Dr. Osei Kuffuor Afreh in a Citi News interview said the region needs more support from the general public in order to fight the epidemic.

“The education is still a bit of a challenge because we don’t have adequate logistics, we are using the media, our partners like the Information Services Department and others but we are a little a bit tight with finances to be able to motivate all these supporting partners to really go into the communities. So we are doing some education but we need some more financial support to be able to do that. We still have about 258 cases and 40 deaths so on Monday we will get all the feedback from all the districts and bring them together to see what we can do,” he said.

No known vaccine for new strain of meningitis in Upper West Region – GHS

The Ghana Health Service (GHS) had earlier in a press release disclosed that the current outbreak of Meningitis in the Upper West Region is caused by a new strain of bacteria that has no vaccine.

“The current outbreak in the Upper West Region is caused mainly by a new strain of bacteria; Neisseria meningitides serotype X, which has no vaccine and Streptococcus pneumonia which has an average case fatality of 40%.”

The Ghana Health Service, however, said even though there is no vaccine for this strain causing the outbreak, there is an effective treatment upon early reporting and initiation of the said treatment.

This can “significantly improve outcome and improve survival rate,” according to GHS.