Dr. Philip Amoo, Head of Public Health Department of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, has called on traditional leaders to do more to support the fight against the spread of communicable diseases including meningitis.

He said the expectation was that they would help to dispel the myth and untruths often associated with such diseases to encourage people to report to the health facilities for treatment.

He was speaking at a day’s sensitization workshop on Ebola and meningitis prevention held in Tamale.

The programme was organized by the Northern Regional House of Chiefs in collaboration with the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation.

This comes amid reported cases of pneumococcal meningitis in different parts of the nation with dozens of lives lost.

Dr. Amoo asked that the chiefs to give strong backing to efforts at creating public awareness to effectively deal with any public health crisis.

This, they should do by working together with the health workers, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other actors.

He appealed to them to take bold steps to jettison cultural practices inimical to the health of the people.

He took time to explain to the chiefs, causes of the two diseases, mode of transmission and prevention.

Dr. Kofi Bonney, Research Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, University of Ghana, said all the over 150 suspected Ebola cases investigated in the country had proved negative.