A senior lecturer at the University of Ghana who is also a researcher at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Prof. William Ampofo has dismissed assertions that ebola can be transmitted through eating of bush meat. He says the focus on bush meat is wrong and insists the transmission is from human to human. He is therefore advising that the focus should be on the public health emergencies.
Prof. William Ampofo, speaking at a seminar organized by the College of Science at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) earlier this month says it is safe to eat bush meat and also reiterated the stance of Ghanaian health workers that as at November 1, all the 112 suspected cases of ebola have proved negative. He assured that the Ghana health service has put measures in place to address all likely ebloa concerns when tested positive.
The senior virologist also revealed that a treated ebola patient can pass it on to another person through sex until after six months.
He stated that a treated ebola patient within the first six months of treatment is advised to have protected sex in order not to pass it on to the partner. He intimated that the virus stays in the semen of men and dies out completely after six months of treatment. He added that, it is not confirmed that women who are treated can pass it on to men through sex.
Addressing the issue of cholera, he lamented on why cholera outbreak which can easily be prevented has taken a lot of Ghanaian lives in recent times.
He is calling for intensive community education and social mobilization in the use of aqua tabs to treat drinking water to reduce the rate.
On his part, the director of University health Service at KNUST, Dr. Yaw Bio has made a call to various relevant authorities to check sachet water companies saying they might be the cause of cholera in the country.
