Ghana Health Service officials at the Aflao Border have demanded the deployment of the military to unapproved entry points along the Ghana-Togo Border to avert a possible outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus.
“We are advising the state to take it as a matter of security and ensure that they deploy the military to all these points. They should take Ebola situation as a crisis,” Assistant Port Health Officer of Ghana Health Service John Marfo told Joy FM’s Volta regional correspondent Ivy Setordzi.
Ebola is West Africa’s most deadly killer after claiming 1,069 lives out of 1,975 suspected cases as of August 2014.
Spreading from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, the disease has reached Nigeria, circling Ghana dangerously.
The disease is spread through contact and travellers are easy incubators of the virus hence the need for boarder checks and screening.
Mr. Marfo said anybody with one of the case definitions of ebola is referred to the Aflao hospital which has been designated as the international referral point for the virus.
The Ghana Health Service official said his outfit has been using a non-contact thermometer to check the temperature of all travelers at the Aflao border “When the temperature goes beyond 37 or 38, we begin to add extra screening measures by asking them to go through some forms”.
But there are some unapproved entry points in the country which is unmanned by CEPS. There are fears that these points can be used by illegal immigrants and consequently illegal immigrants who may be carrying the deadly virus.
“We don’t have men to man these unapproved routes and as the name implies we are not supposed to be there,” the official said.
