Stigma and lack of awareness remain the two major challenges affecting efforts by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) in the management of the Mpox disease outbreak in the country.
In few weeks, the country is expecting the arrival of some 33, 600 vaccines which the GHS is anticipating will break the source of transmission of the virus.
Currently, Ghana has confirmed 494 cases from all 16 regions and the disease hotspot remains the Western, Western North and Greater Accra regions.
The Director of Public Health at the GHS, Dr Franklin Asiedu Bekoe who spoke exclusively to 3news noted that his outfit is trying to enhance awareness across the country.
‘’We are trying to expand and improve upon our awareness creation. We have realized that we have gotten some challenges in terms of concentrating or heightening our awareness. But I must state that there are parts of the country where awareness is high like the Western Region, Tarkwa.
In the next few weeks, we will get some vaccines and what is going to happen is that we will target the hot spots so most of it will go to the Western Region. Some particular districts to break the source of infection and transmission.” He stated.
Dr Bekoe further noted that the Service is hopeful of a decline in cases soon, as they prepare to gather the cohorts for the vaccination drive.
‘‘Thankfully almost 90% of case are all mild. We are also adopting a psychological support for the patients which will help them trust us and help us with the right contacts to trace. So, we have been able to identify a number that we are likely to get the vaccine to cut the infection. So, we are trying to identify clusters. So, for us our concentration is going to be the Western Region and some parts of Accra, the mining areas and some slums. And hopefully cases should decline soon.” He said.
