Preamble
We, the members of the Ghana Catholic Bishops’ Conference (GCBC), are concerned and alarmed about the spread of the deadly Ebola virus disease in parts of West Africa, especially, in neighbouring countries such as Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, where the disease has already claimed more than 700 lives.
We wish therefore to bring the following information and directives to the attention of all Ghanaians, especially, our Catholic faithful, Priests and Religious, in our effort to help prevent the outbreak of the disease in our beloved country.
Some Useful Facts about Ebola Disease
- Ebola Virus is named after the Ebola River in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the first outbreak of the viral disease occurred in 1976. It kills 90% of its victims.
- As a killer disease, Ebola is transmitted through body secretions such as sweat, blood, saliva, mucous, breast secretion, urine and sexual transmission with an infected person.
- It is also transmitted to humans by contacts with infected fruit bats, monkeys, chimpanzees and their primates.
- Ebola puts the victim in lots of pain. There is no cure for the disease and the cause is unknown as at now.
- It is one of the world’s most deadly viruses and one of the most painful deaths possible. The victim can die anywhere from 3 to 30 days or even longer. It can only be stopped when it has no more hosts to feed on.
- Symptoms include fever, sore throat, headaches, weakness, joint and muscle pain, chest pain and bleeding from the skin. In pregnant women, miscarriage and heavy vaginal bleeding are common symptoms.
- Death usually occurs during the second week of Ebola symptoms and it is usually due to massive blood loss. Prevention is the key word.
How to Prevent the Disease
Some of the simplest ways of preventing the disease include:-
- Wash your hands often with soap and water; sanitizer is a good alternative.
- Avoid physical contact with people with suspicious signs and places of outbreak.
- Watch out for the warning signs which mimic malaria symptoms.
- Wash fruits and vegetables well before cooking.
- Report suspicious cases to the nearest hospital or healthcare facility.
- Undercooked infected fruit bats and primate (bush) meat including their products transmits the virus to humans. Avoid them.
National Response
We are aware that Government has put in place a national programme to help prevent and contain the disease in the event of an outbreak in our country. Our recommendation is that government should publicise this programme for all citizens to know the danger posed by the disease through an aggressive information and education campaign on the disease.
Our entry points including, the airports, harbours and borders, should be alert and well-equipped to screen people who enter our country to isolate and deal with possible cases of the disease. We are concerned about the situation where people, especially, fishermen who have been to some of the affected areas enter the country, through the sea and go straight to their families and communities without any proper screening. We think that this situation poses a real danger not only to the families of such people but to the entire nation and call on government to help address this situation.
Additionally, some hospitals, clinics and healthcare centres across the nation, should be set up as special centres to handle reported cases of the disease immediately. With the knowledge that health workers are at a real risk of contracting the disease and have frequently been infected while attending to Ebola patients, we call on government to provide the necessary protective gears, including gloves, masks, etc., for the their use. Additionally, we think that some compensatory package should be instituted for those who attend to Ebola patients to encourage and motivate them to offer the best possible care to such patients.
Directives for the Church
We wish to appeal to all Priests, Religious and lay leaders, including catechists, to begin to inform and educate our people about the disease. In this vein, we strongly appeal to all Parish Priests and their Assistants to devote the next few Sundays to the education of all parishioners on the disease. Health personnel should be approached to lead this exercise.
We also appeal to all our hospitals, clinics and other health facilities dotted across the country, to put in place the necessary structures at the facilities to handle reported cases of Ebola with dispatch.
While we cannot direct our faithful not to shake hands during the Kiss of Peace at mass, we think that it is possible to minimize the shaking of hands.
These directives are intended as short-term measures to prevent the possible outbreak of the Ebola disease in our country.
Conclusion
We should all remember that the only possible way of stopping the outbreak of Ebola is prevention and all of us must contribute our quota in that regard. While it is absolutely important for everyone to help prevent this deadly disease from entering our country, it serves no useful purpose to suspect every little symptom as signs of Ebola. This, far from helping in the fight against the disease, rather creates confusion, fear and panic, among people and so we encourage all to refrain from this act.
We recommend intensive prayers for an end to the spread of the disease in our sub-region and elsewhere and show solidarity with our brothers and sisters in affected areas. We wish that all of us will do our part to help ensure that this disease is kept far away from entering Ghana by taking the necessary precautionary measures.
May God who is our shield, protector and healer, keep all of us safe in these trying moments and help us fight this disease together. May God bless us all.
SIGNED
MOST REV. JOSEPH OSEI-BONSU
BISHOP OF KONONGO-MAMPONG &
PRESIDENT, GHANA CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE