Parents restrained visit to H1N1 school

Parents who have their children at Mfantsipim Senior High School in Cape Coast in the Central region have been banned from visiting them for two weeks to enable the school control the H1N1 pandemic otherwise known as swine flu which has hit the school.

The headmaster of the school, Mr Koame Mieza Edjah, who made this known to the press, explained that since the disease is airborne there was the need for the school authorities as well as the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to put mechanisms in place to ensure that more people are not infected by the disease.

Mr Edjah said parents who visited their wards in the early part of April when the pandemic was first recorded in the school should also go for screening and testing.

Briefing the press last Monday on the situation in the school, Mr Edjah said students have been advised not to go to the Cape Coast Township as well as avoid public gatherings to help reduce the spread of the disease.

He assured parents that the school was in full control of the situation and therefore urged them not to panic over the welfare of their wards.

He hinted that the school’s management could have allowed the closure of the school but realised that would rather worsen the situation in the country since the students may infect their families when they are allowed to go home.

He expressed disappointment about the way some media houses are creating tension and anxiety among parents and Ghanaians in general.

In this regard, the Mfantsipim headmaster cautioned the media houses to be circumspect in their reportage of the pandemic and not blow the matter out of proportion with the intention of selling their newspapers.

The Metropolitan Director of Health Service, Dr Joseph Nuertey, disclosed that out of 193 students who were screened last Sunday at the school, 20 of them showed symptoms of the virus and have been placed under medication.

He disclosed that the cases have increased from 12 to 16 in the region with Mfantsipim maintaining its 10 cases while Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa’s cases increased from 2 to 6.

The metropolitan director disclosed that a-24 hour surveillance and a stand-by ambulance has been strategically stationed in the school to attend to students whose conditions may deteriorate.

Dr Nuertey revealed that nobody has died of H1N1 in the country since it was reported, and added that frantic efforts were being made by GHS and the World Health Organisation to enable the country get a vaccine for the pandemic influenza.

The deputy Director of Public Health Service in the region, Dr John Bertson Eleeza, announced that 40 people have been placed on medication at the Asikuma-Odoben-Brakwa district.