Ebola response and treatment centre for Obuasi
Anglogold Ashanti Ghana is partnering with the Obuasi Municipal Health Directorate to provide the Obuasi district with an Ebola response and treatment centre.
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The centre is expected to become operational in the next two months and is to be located at the Obuasi Government Hospital. With that, Obuasi will become the first district in the country to have such a facility.
Currently, the Tema General Hospital and the Korle Bu and Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals are the only hospitals with such a facility.
The treatment centre, in addition to an isolation centre at the Anglogold local hospital and sponsored by the company, would become part of measures Ghana is putting in place in the event of the out break of the disease in Ghana.
The Managing Director of Anglogold Ashanti, Mr Fred Attakumah, announced the plans at a training seminar on Ebola at Obuasi. It was held to equip health workers in the municipality with information so that they could effectively identify, manage and contain the disease.
“This intervention will significantly enhance our preparedness in mitigating an occurrence of the disease and is in alignment with Anglogold Ashanti’s determination to improve living conditions in communities in its operational area,” he said.
Anglogold has consequently established a five-member Ebola management team headed by Dr Kwasi Safo of the Anglogold Ashanti Hospital. The team, among other things, is to adjust activities at the centre to the national, regional and municipal strategy for managing the Ebola disease.
Mr Attakumah said beyond that, the company would support efforts to create awareness of the disease on local FM radio stations and in communities in the company’s operational area by providing information on the disease.
‘Ebola is everyone’s problem and none of us should ignore the threat or treat it lightly,” he cautioned.