The Upper West Regional Directorate has revealed that, most of the cases of Cerebrospinal Meningitis in the Upper West Region are been caused by Serotype X Meningitis.
According to the Upper West Regional Director of the Ghana Health Services, Dr. Osei Kufour Afreh, the region fines it difficult to conduct mass vaccination exercise as it is very rear to fine vaccine for Serotype X Meningitis worldwide.
“A rear subtype and that subtype is serotype x is what is causing the problem in Upper West now. Worldwide we don’t have a vaccine for serotype x even if we have, you will fine it in one or two countries, in our country I don’t even WHO has lincesed any vaccine for serotype x. So getting a vaccine for serotype x worldwide is very difficult”.
He added that the directorate has received about 7,500 vials of ceftriaxone from Grease and 300 vials of same were also donated by Hajjia Humu Awudu, NPP’s Wa Central Parliamentary Candidate as well as the NDC in the region also giving them about 250 vials of ceftriaxone. He said ceftriaxone will only be used on those who have already contracted the disease but vaccines to use on those who have not contracted the CMS are not found stressing that, the Serotype X Meningitis that dominated in the cases recorded has no vaccine which gives them a lot of headache.
Dr. Osei said, the only way to protecting those who have not contracted the disease is to advise them to adhere to the laid down protocols for COVID 19 stating that the two shared same mode of transmission. He expressed worry over some natives of the region still not adhering to the social distancing protocol saying that if not checked, CMS can spread in the region.
He appealed to the people of the Upper West Region to help reduce the stigmatization given to patients adding that, the attitude if not stopped can deter people from going to the various health facilities even if they see signs and symptoms on them.
On COVID-19 Dr. Osei Kufour Afreh indicated that the region is still battling with the one positive case but was excited to announce that the person has finished his 14 days mandatory quarantined and a second sample will be taken by Tuesday and if proves negative, the victim will be reintegrated with the society.
He noted that, they have gotten about 55 suspected cases and samples have been taken for test and further added that the region has move from a low risk area to a medium risk area as over 2000 people from Kumasi and Accra came into the region prior to the lock down of the two regions which poses danger to the region. Dr. Afreh says his outfit will soon embark on a mass testing exercise on the people who came into the region prior to the lock down and the results will determine the fate of the region.
The Director made this known at a risk communication team meeting organised by the Regional Health Directorate on Sunday at the conference hall of the Upper West Regional Coordinating Council.
