The National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) has indicated it will not be able to manage any possible outbreak of the Ebola virus in Ghana.

Staff expect to be equipped with the appropriate protective gears to enable them identify and isolate cases of the dreaded disease.

Their request is also to safeguard their lives from being infected, should there be an outbreak in the country.

But the NADMO Coordinator, Kofi Portuphy pointed out that for lack of the required logistics, staff of the organization would be unwilling to risk their lives to attend to Ebola patients.

Mr. Portuphy was speaking at a staff durbar as part of a familiarisation visit by the Interior Minister, Mark Owen Woyongo, Friday.

Touching on disaster, Mr. Portuphy stated the NADMO was in the process of reviewing its laws to make it mandatory for the assemblies to use part of their common funds to address disaster and climate change issues.

Moreover, he said the staff were undergoing some capacity building to help them respond quickly to disasters.

On the Ebola concerns, the Interior Minister said the government is concerned about the staff of NADMO since they were the frontliners and asked them to ensure personal hygiene and also learn more about the disease.

He directed the management of the organisation to send a formal request to his Ministry, detailing what they would need to protect themselves against the virus.

Mr. Woyongo also urged them to concentrate more on  prevention so that "we wouldn't have to spend huge sums to deal with disasters".

On challenges facing NADMO, the Minister said the government was making efforts to acquire more equipment for the organisation.

He encouraged them to educate Ghanaians more on disaster prevention.

Mr.Woyongo urged staff members to engage more in prevention than waiting for disasters to occur and also educate people more on how to prevent disasters.

Currently, four West African countries including Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria and Guinea have been badly affected by the disease, killing several hundreds of their citizens and some international health workers.

About the Ebola virus disease (EVD)

• Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage
• Spread by body fluids, such as blood and saliva
• Current outbreak has mortality rate of about 55%
• Incubation period is two to 21 days
• There is no proven vaccine or cure

Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery.