Officials in Ghana are struggling to contain an emerging trend of an outbreak of respiratory diseases in some of the country’s senior high schools.
Over the past weeks, local media have reported of various deaths among students with several others being hospitalized for contracting respiratory diseases such as Swine flu and Meningitis.
In the Ashanti region of the West African nation, at least 13 students have died from one school, the Kumasi Academy due to an outbreak of H1N1, according to health officials.
Starr FM also reported that on Saturday a student of the Koforidua Secondary Technical School (SECTECH) also died of suspected Meningitis at a health post, with some 22 students currently hospitalized.
On Monday local media reported of some 17 students of a school the St. Martins Secondary School collapsing ahead of an examination.
On Tuesday a student of the Damongo Senior High School in the West Gonja district of Ghana’s Northern region also died of suspected meningitis. Nine others were also on admission at a hospital.
The government has been criticised for its handling of the issue but Ghana’s health minister, Kwaku Agyeman Manu has however defended government’s handling of the crisis.
He told local media Starr FM that the government “never delayed, people don’t understand health systems…after March we never saw the disease and it was like whatever plans they put in place seemed to be working until another thing happened.”
In September this year Ghana introduced its free senior high school policy which gives free access to children to attend school without paying a fee.
Some analysts have blamed the policy for the congestion situation in some school leading to the outbreak of respiratory diseases.
Source: Africafeeds.com
