Ebola, Cholera Experts Storm Mepe

Health experts from La General Hospital in Accra, in collaboration with Mepe Fun Club and Mepe Ladies Club, are set to hold a symposium on cholera and the deadly Ebola virus in Mepe Traditional Area in the North Tongu District of the Volta region. The symposium is aimed at creating awareness and educating residents on the deadly Ebola virus and cholera. The event, which will take place in Mepe Royal Masito Hotel on Friday, September 5, 2014 at 9:00 A.M., will elaborate on the symptoms and preventive measures on both Ebola and cholera. A press statement issued by President of Mepe Fun Club, Mr. Kojo Ellenu Fabian, and copied to Today noted that �the overall objective of the symposium under the auspices of the La General Hospital and Mepe Development Association (MDA) is to beef up the implementation of strategies to contain the Ebola virus and particularly the outbreak of cholera in the country.� The event will also provide participants with updates on Ebola in particular, the statement added. �And also to estimate appropriate strategies and resources needed to curb the epidemic,� it added. �The Ebola virus in West Africa, notably in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and recently in Nigeria, is a threat to regional and global public health safety as well as the economic and social security of the affected countries and therefore considered as one of the most frightening ever experienced since the outbreak of the disease more than forty years ago,� it further noted. It would be recalled that several inter-country meetings have been held on the subject. Health authorities in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone have been brought together through regular cross-border meetings. An emergency ministerial meeting was convened on 2nd and 3rd July in Accra on Ebola and that resulted in a communiqu� with recommendations addressed to each stakeholder. Heads of state and government of ECOWAS who met in Accra on the 10th and 11th of July, 2014 approved recommendations proposed ​​by the director general of the West African Health Organisation (WAHO,) regarding actions to be taken under this epidemic situation. These were namely to support implementation of synchronised cross-border interventions; provide financial support to the four affected countries to strengthen preventive and control measures, active surveillance of cases, management of cases in specialised environments, multi-sectoral coordination/collaboration, beefing up material and logistic capacities together with social mobilisation. The rest were supporting neighbouring countries and those at risk by strengthening epidemiological surveillance, conducting rapid assessments, social mobilization and training of personnel. In addition to that summit, a meeting was held in Conakry on July 20, 2014 with health ministers of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and C�te d�Ivoire, still looking for ways and means of implementing appropriate strategies to curb the deadly Ebola virus.