Dr Philip Amoo said there was a situation in which two suspected cases of

coronavirus were reported at the facility and all the doctors fled.
Describing the situation at Ghana’s biggest referral hospital yesterday as
‘malicious panic,’ Dr Amoo said some doctors on duty even began to flee the
health facility for fear of getting infected.
“Yesterday I saw something very funny,” he began narrating events that took
place at the hospital to the host of Joy FM’s Super Morning Show, Daniel
Dadzie, on Thursday.
“There is something we call malicious panic: panic that is not founded on
anything. Just people [doctors] wanting to go home…it’s sad. This one will
shout, ‘hey I have little children’…and disappear from the scene. That is the
reason why as soon as the epidemic thing steps in into the environment, the
case needed to be moved away quickly from routine sites,” he explained the
actions by the doctors.
Coronavirus scare in Ghana
Ghana could be the second West African country after Ivory Coast to report
a case of the fast-spreading coronavirus infection if two foreign nationals
suspected of having the disease test positive for the infection.
The patients, a Chinese and an Argentine, on Wednesday reported at the
Korle Bu Teaching Hospital after they developed some symptoms suspected
to be coronavirus.
Health authorities say they two foreign nationals live together but travelled
on different dates from China to Ghana. They had gone to test for Meningitis
before they were quarantined for a suspected case of coronavirus.
- There are 24,300 confirmed coronavirus cases and 490 deaths in
mainland China.
The two persons have since been quarantined while their blood samples
taken have been sent to the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical
Research (NMIMR) for further analysis. Results are due by noon on
Thursday.
Korle Bu not prepared
Commenting on Korle Bu’s preparedness to deal with a possible spread of
the Novel Corona Virus Infection on the Super Morning Show, Dr Philip
Amoo, who is also a Public Health Consultant, said the situation was sad.
He said the panic that gripped doctors at Korle Bu would have been worse.

According to him, the activation of an Epidemic Preparedness Strategy by

the hospital's management on Monday, February 3, 2020, helped to calm
nerves when the two cases were reported.

- Korle Bu is the biggest referral hospital in Ghana.

He said the activation of the Epidemic Preparedness Strategy readied the
whole hospital and ensured that the flow of logistics was adequately in
place.
“So that helped us a lot to be able to do what we did yesterday not to put the
hospital into pandemonium. However, there are key challenges. Korle Bu is
a very busy environment, there are very sick people.
“When people are suspected [of having coronavirus], they are supposed to
be sent away immediately to a central holding bay so by activating the
system we checked on the holding bay, the holding bay is in a state of
disuse now,” he revealed.
National coronavirus strategy
The Head of the Public Health Department at the Korle-Bu Teaching
Hospital also bemoaned what he believes to be an unfortunate failure by
government to include the major health facility in a national strategy to deal
with the Novel Corona Virus Infection.
The Ministry of Health (MoH) has designated the Ridge Hospital (Greater
Accra Regional Hospital) and Tema General Hospital as initial case
management centres in Accra to deal with the virus.
The Ministry said in a press release that Regional Directors across the
country have also been instructed to designate holding or treatment centres
in their respective regions.
“We are preparing to designate more centres in the highly populated areas
of Accra, Kumasi, Takoradi and Tamale,” the Health Ministry said in a
statement.
Also, Case Management Teams have been activated to manage cases at
the designated national centres and are currently receiving orientation on the
management of possible coronavirus cases, the statement said.
But speaking on the Super Morning Show, Dr Amoo said the national
strategy is not comprehensive enough because Korle Bu, a key national
asset, was not included in the strategy.
“Korle Bu would have to be prioritised,” he said.
He said the hospital has appealed to government to revamp the central
holding bay to enable the smooth running of the hospital while the
coronavirus cases are dealt with.
“Korle Bu is a national asset and certainly, no matter what happens, other
hospitals could be designated as coronavirus centres but [people will
certainly bring the cases to Korle Bu],” he said.
Head of the Disease Surveillance Department (DSD) of the Ghana Health
Service, Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, explained on the Super Morning Show
that although Korle Bu is not a designated centre for the coronavirus,
expertise from the facility has been made a key part of the strategy.
Coronavirus
So far, the new coronavirus, dubbed 2019-nCoV, has led to more than
20,000 illnesses and more than 560 deaths in China, as well as more than
200 illnesses and two deaths outside of mainland China.
The most common symptoms are fever, cough and shortness of breath.
Some patients also reported sore throat and runny nose while others
experienced diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting.

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