Upper West Health Directorate ready for swine influenza

Wa, July 6, GNA - Dr. Alexis Nang-Baifubah, the Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, has said the region has adequate antiviral medicine for the treatment of the Influenza A(HINI) should there be an outbreak.

He said the drug has been made available to the Wa Regional Hospital and urged the people not to panic.

District hospitals would be supplied with the medicine and directed them to set up surveillance sites for early detection and treatment of the disease.

He said specimen collection for testing and subsequent treatment as well as the establishment of isolation wards for managing severe cases of influenza had been put in place while some personnel of Customs, Excise and Preventive Service had been trained on the disease. Dr. Nang-Baifubah said this at a day's sensitization meeting with health workers and security personnel on the swine and avian flu in Wa. The meeting was to strengthen the capacity of flu teams in health facilities to adequately manage cases of human influenza. Dr. Nang-Baifubah said logistic for laboratory support and drugs for treatment are available and urged district health directors and hospital authorities to identify training teams for case management. He said the non-preparation towards disasters had been the obstacle of Ghana's progress in managing disasters when they occur. "Our over-reliance on foreign funding to manage disasters should be discouraged", Dr. Nang-Baifubah said and appealed to the government to make funds available to cater for disasters. "We are at the edge of a looming disaster if we continue to wait for funding from donor countries to manage disasters such the swine influenza A (HINI)", he said.