The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has held an Ebola and Cholera surveillance and contact tracing training for health workers from all the Regions.

The three-day training was to equip participants with additional knowledge and expertise to effectively maintain surveillance, manage any Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak and trace contacts to control the epidemic should any case be reported.

Participants, who were from the various teaching hospitals and other relevant health institutions across the country, were taken through the rudiments of proper case management of the EVD and given updates on the present state of Ebola in the Sub-region.

They were also enlightened on the importance of health workers protecting themselves from contracting the virus while handling patients.

They were made to understand that although there were weak surveillance systems as well as logistic challenges in most health institutions across the country, government in partnership with its health partners were working hard to provide the needed support to strengthen their operations.

Dr. Erasmus Adongo, Director of Policy Planning Monitoring and Evaluation and acting Director-General of the GHS, said the question of whether Ghana was prepared to effectively manage the EVD should any case be detected, would depend on the attitudes of both health workers and the public.

According to him, preparation for the EVD was at a dynamic stage that required continuous education and commitment towards strict surveillance at the community level and also at all points of entry into the country.

He appealed to all Ghanaians to get interested in the numerous educational materials on Ebola and Cholera being circulated and acquit themselves with proper information to help protect their families and communities from contracting the disease.

Ms. Itsuko Shirotani, Project Formulation Advisor of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) Ghana Office, made a demonstration of the proper use of the non-contact thermometers which the organization has procured to support the Ministry of Health in the EVD prevention.

She stressed on the importance of the proper use of the kit, advising that health workers were to hold the thermometers at least one to three centimeters from their patients for effective recording of the temperature.

She also said the thermometers were not to be used in an air conditioned room or under a ceiling fan because such could affect a patient’s body temperature leading to wrong recordings.