The Deputy Director, Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr. Farida Abdulai has disclosed that Ghana recorded four (4) deaths and 116 confirmed cases of the Monkeypox disease in 2022, in 14 out of the 16 regions.
Two deaths were recorded in Upper East and one each in the Greater Accra and Central regions while the Savannah and Ahafo regions did not record any case.
The Deputy Director made this known in a community stakeholder engagement at Ningo-Prampram in the Greater Accra Region.
The stakeholder engagement was organized by the GHS, in collaboration with the USAID Breakthrough Action-Ghana programme, to educate the public on measures to overcome the disease.
Dr. Abdulai said Monkeypox could affect anyone despite the age, disclosing that a 13-day old baby got infected and died.
However, more than half of the confirmed cases were from persons between the ages of 16 and 39 years.
According to Dr. Abdulai, in August, 2022, Monkeypox was renamed ‘Mpox’ to stem stigmatization and added that the virus spreads through respiratory droplets and close contact with the rashes of an infected person.
Dr. Abdulai mentioned that the symptoms include acute fever with a body temperature of more than 38 degrees Celsius, coughing, cold, backache, sore throat, weakness, and rashes.
She therefore advised the general public to seek immediate medical attention anytime they experience these symptoms adding that a free lab test would be run to determine whether one had the infection or not.
The result is then taken to the National Public Health Reference Lab for confirmation.
Dr. Abdulai also advised against the intake of alcohol or bathing in the sea as treatment of the disease as those were mere myths.
“Those are not the remedy for the sickness, rather seek proper health care services,” she stated.
