Accra: A member of Parliament's Health Committee, Dr. Kingsley Agyemang, has warned that Ghana remains unprepared to handle a possible Ebola outbreak despite ongoing assurances from health authorities. According to him, the country's current preparedness measures are heavily concentrated in Accra and fail to reflect the true state of readiness across districts and regions.
According to Ghana Web, Dr. Agyemang, speaking on Channel One TV's Breakfast Daily, described Ghana's overall emergency response system for Ebola and other highly infectious diseases as inadequate. "We have been following keenly what is happening across Africa and what the Director-General of the Ghana Health Service has been presenting. But what we have seen is very unsatisfactory," he said. The MP questioned the effectiveness of preparedness assessments that focus mainly on selected facilities in the capital, while many health centers outside Accra remain uncertain about their response capacity.
Dr. Agyemang raised concerns about the preparedness of health systems outside the capital, emphasizing that Ghana's national health security cannot be based on readiness demonstrations in Accra alone. He warned that if an Ebola case emerges outside the capital, major weaknesses in surveillance, logistics, and emergency response systems could quickly be exposed. "What happens if an Ebola case emerges in Sege or Ada? How prepared are government facilities in Ada?" he queried.
He stressed the need for urgent investment in district and regional health systems, arguing that preparedness against deadly outbreaks must not remain capital-centered. His comments come at a time when fears over Ebola are rising globally following fresh outbreaks in parts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently declared the outbreak a Public Health Emergency of International Concern after hundreds of suspected infections and dozens of deaths were recorded.
Although the outbreak is currently concentrated in Central and East Africa, health authorities across the world have intensified surveillance amid fears of cross-border spread.