Ebola Hemorhagic Fever Containment Lessons For Ghana From Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea

What can Ghana learn from the Ebola fever outbreak in  Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea? There is a great deal we can actually learn from their experience in containing the Ebola fever outbreak that they are now grappling with - which is why we must not join those nations now ostracising them.

 It is heartbreaking that the  three sister west African nations that had been so successful in putting their dark and troublesome pasts - years of brutal civil wars ( in Liberia and Sierra Leone) and corrupt military dictatorships (in all three nations) - behind them,  and had evolved into stable democratic societies that were steadily growing their national economies, have suddenly had their systems' totally disorganised and turned upside down, by the outbreak of Ebola fever.

Instead of joining those countries trying to turn the three nations into pariah states as a result of the Ebola fever outbreak, by shunning all contact with them, Ghana ought to rather show them compassion.

Rather than shunning them, by refusing entry into Ghana by their nationals, why don't we simply require all travellers from the three  nations,  who want to transit through Ghana, or visit their friends and relations here, to apply for permits to visit Ghana a month ahead of their travelling dates - and issue them with special permits to come to Ghana, if they are screened at the end of the one month waiting period, and shown to be free of the Ebola virus?

Under the circumstances, no one can accuse Ghana of being unreasonable, in refusing those without such special permits, permission to enter its territory, from those three countries.

To show the governments and citizens of the three nations that we empathise with them, the government of Ghana  could also make donations of personal protective clothing kits to their respective ministries of health for distribution to frontline healthcare professionals - to show them that Ghanaians are at one with them at this trying period in their history.

Naturally, the government of Ghana must also provide all frontline public-sector and private-sector healthcare professionals in our country  with personal protective clothing kits. That will help empower them, in the fight to contain any outbreak of Ebola fever, in Ghana.

 Ghanaians with access to the internet, could also sign the online Change.org petition to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), started by the US-based  medical doctor from Sierra Leone, Dr. Ahmed Tejan-Sie, who wants the FDA to speed up the certification of experimental drugs like TKM-Ebola, which is said to have been tolerated by 14 human research participants in just-halted tests. TKM-Ebola was also apparently effective in treating primates infected with the Ebola fever virus.

Above all, let us learn from the experience of the three nations in containing the outbreak of Ebola fever  - which their healthcare professionals will willingly share with our healthcare professionals by video-link, if we showed them compassion.

On our part, as a people, it is time we stopped shaking hands in Ghana - as a public health measure to prevent Ghanaians from becoming infected by the Ebola fever virus, should it get into Ghana.

We can dispense with handshakes altogether, and greet each other by clasping our hands and bringing them near our lips and noses, and bowing our heads to acknowledge each other, as Buddhists do in places like India. The Tibetan religious leader, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, does that a lot, incidentally.

We must also realise that spitum is a bodily fluid - and mount a public campaign against spitting in public places. Human faeces is excreted from human bodies - so we  must ban defecation in the open throughout Ghana: and strictly enforce local authority bans in place against it, nationwide.

Local authorities must build modern public places of convenience throughout their jurisdictions. Proper sanitation is important in stopping diseases like Ebola fever from spreading, when they strike.

 Let us also understand clearly that the provision of treated drinking-water is a public health measure - not a commercial undertaking from which vast profits can be extracted. No household can be hygienic if it lacks access to treated running water.

Instead of constantly increasing tariffs to fund their operations, let us fund the expansion and modernisation of the Ghana Water Company Limited's (GWCL) treatment plants, by floating some of the government's shares in the GWCL, on the Ghana Stock Exchange (GSE). Listing on the GSE will infuse discipline into the management of the company, and ensure that corporate good governance principles underpin the entirety of their operations.

 And since sexual intercourse involves an exchange of bodily fluids, we would all be wise to avoid casual sex with those we are not in a regular relationship with. Those men and women who buy the services of sex workers must revise their notes very quickly - and turn over a new leaf.

It is also time we ended our wasteful spending on organising expensive funerals. Funerals could become infection hotspots across the country, should there be an outbreak of  Ebola fever in Ghana.

If the Ebola virus is at its most dangerous in the bodies of infected victims who die, does it not make sense to quickly cremate all those who die in Ghana as a matter of course -  instead of keeping the dead refrigerated in motuaries for months on end before finally burying them in cemetries?

Building and operating crematoria could be a business opportunity for both District Assemblies and private-sector businesses throughout Ghana - and enable us send off the dead with dignity, safely and hygienically.

Finally, to prevent being overwhelmed by any outbreak of Ebola hemorhagic fever in our country, is it not time the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO) was removed from civillian hands, and transferred to the Ghana Armed Forces?

Alas, if we fail to do so,  it will be a complete disaster for Ghana,  were there to be an outbreak of Ebola fever here. It is worth noting that the military is playing key roles in the Ebola fever containment  efforts  underway in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. For our own good, as a society, we must learn practical lessons from the Ebola  fever outbreak containment efforts being made by Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. A word to the wise...