Accra , Aug. 17, GNA – The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has dispatched 50,000 capsules of Tamiflu medication, to treat pandemic influenza H1N1 that may occur in the regions.

In addition, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research has ordered laboratory logistics worth GH¢40,000 to enhance laboratory test of identified specimens suspected to be influenza H1N1.

Dr Kyei Faried, Head of Disease Control and Prevention Department of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), made this known to the Ghana News Agency in Accra at the weekend.

He said personal protective equipment such as a specially made face mask that could prevent transmission; gloves and aprons have been dispatched to all health personnel throughout the country for use, when handling suspected influenza cases.

Dr Faried said regional and district hospitals had also made available isolation wards to receive cases.

“All these are measures we have put in place to contain an outbreak of influenza should it happen,” he added.

Dr Faried explained that 32 suspected cases of influenza H1N1 had been screened throughout the country out of which two were tested positive but both patients had been treated and discharged.

He noted that the discharged patients were well and did not pose any danger to relatives and the general public.

The first case of the pandemic influenza H1N1 was confirmed in Ghana on August 6.

The first patient, a young lady who went to a health facility with mild symptoms of influenza, said she had a cold from the brother who came from the United Kingdom

The two patients were quarantined and put under surveillance.

Dr Faried said all health facilities, both public and private, were well prepared to receive and manage all cases and that the Civil Aviation Authority would disseminate influenza messages on all airport televisions and put bigger posters at vantage points to educate the public.

He observed that GHS is working with school health co-ordinators to mount education in schools on how to detect cases and prevent its spread.

The pandemic influenza H1N1 is caused by a virus that affects the respiratory system and typically spreads through coughs and sneezes or by touching contaminated surfaces.

The disease, which may present itself like a common cold with cough, sore throat, fever, catarrh, general weakness, body ache and headache and sometimes vomiting or diarrhoea, may also lead to severe pneumonia with difficulty in breathing, rapid breathing and chest pain.

Symptoms can last up to a week and complications of the disease include pneumonia and difficulty in breathing.

The disease is highly transmissible, with majority of cases presented as mild diseases, especially in younger people.

Source: GNA

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