A renowned Ghanaian physician Professor Jacob Plange-Rhule has died of coronavirus, according to health officials.
He died on Friday while undergoing treatment for Covid-19 in the capital Accra, local media reports.
Prof Plange Rhule is said to have succumbed to complications from the disease while on admission at a major health facility in Accra.
Ghana’s presidency is said to have made efforts to fly in needed drugs to help save the physician’s life but it was too late.
Joy FM quoted a Presidential Advisor on Health, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare as saying that Prof Plange-Rhule’s doctor requested for Actemra, a drug used in the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis to be administered on the physician.
But Actemra until after the request, had not been licensed for use in Ghana.
“We used the Presidential Jet within a matter of 24 hours to and bring the drug but unfortunately by the time it reached here, my good friend was gone,” Dr Nsiah-Asare said.
Prof. Plange-Rhule was a former President of the Ghana Medical Association as well as the Ghana Kidney Association.
He was recently the Head of the Department of Physiology of the School of Medical Sciences in Ghana’s second largest city, Kumasi.
Plange-Rhule was until his death the rector of the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons in Accra.
He was a Fellow West Africa College of Physicians; Fellow Ghana College of Physicians and a Fellow Royal College of Physicians, London.
Ghana has so far reported of 408 cases of coronavirus with six deaths as at April 11, 2020.
Source: Africafeeds.com
