An official of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital has advocated a medical insurance and risk allowance package for health workers who will handle Ebola cases should the disease break out in the country.

The Head of the Public Health Unit of the hospital, Dr Philip K. Amoo, also asked for standardised personal protection equipment and training for health workers who had volunteered to be part of the Ebola case management team.

That, he said, had become necessary in view of the high risk associated with the management of Ebola patients.  

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, Dr Amoo said the insurance package would also secure the families of the health workers, considering the risk involved in the treatment of the deadly disease.

Health workers’ death toll 

Ghana has not recorded any case of Ebola yet. However, the chances of the disease entering the country are very high. 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), more than 1,700 cases had been reported so far. 

It said 108 new cases were reported in Nigeria, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone between Saturday, August 2, and Monday, August 4, 2014. 

The death toll included a number of doctors and nurses. 

In Nigeria, a doctor and a nurse have died from Ebola, while five other hospital workers have been confirmed as infected and are isolated.

According to records, 15 per cent of those who have died from the virus in Liberia were doctors or nurses who contracted it at work, including a senior doctor.

In Sierra Leone, the disease has killed at least 572 people, 50 of whom were hospital workers, including Sheik Umar Khan, a top Ebola doctor who was credited with treating more than 100 patients.

Health workers at risk

Considering what had happened to some health workers in the infected countries, Dr Amoo noted that it was proper for health workers here to be protected and their families secured in case of any death.

Explaining the structure of the team to deal with the disease, he said surveillance and laboratory and case management teams would be responsible for detecting and quarantining cases at the various entry points into the country and managing the suspected cases, respectively.

He said the teams needed to be equipped with standardised protective equipment and trained on how to handle the disease.

“The team should be well trained and should undergo simulation exercises to handle the disease because even wearing and removing the protective clothing wrongfully can lead to the health worker being infected with the virus,” he said.

No guarantee

Considering the fact that fluids from victims were infectious, Dr Amoo indicated that the protective equipment did not even guarantee 100 per cent safety and survival of health workers.

For instance, he said, Korle Bu had sent a proposal to the Ministry of Health to create isolation places but no response had been given yet.   

GMA reacts

However, the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) says it has not taken a position on an insurance cover as a condition for treating patients with the deadly disease.

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the President of the GMA, Dr Kwabena Poku Adusei, explained that there had been some discussions in some circles on whether it was possible to insure critical health workers who might come face to face with Ebola patients so that it would boost their morale to work, Enoch Darfah Frimpong reports.

That, he said, was to ensure that in case there was a problem with the disease, or should a doctor or health worker contract it or die, the insurance would take care of his or her family.

He said there had not been any demand that if doctors were not insured, they would not work.

“That is not the stance of the GMA,” he said.

Dr Adusei explained that the issue raised by the Korle Bu doctors had been taken out of context, adding that doctors were demanding insurance as a condition for treating Ebola patients.

He said the Minister of Health, Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, had visited Korle Bu as part of preparations for the Ebola disease, should it be recorded in the country and that together with the acting Chief Executive of the hospital, a number of issues and options were discussed during the interaction with the minister.
----


Source: Daily Graphic