In contrast to prior media reports, the Ghana Health Service (GHS) states that there is no Ebola case in Ghana.
At a meet the press event on Wednesday, GHS Director General Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye claimed that the purported Tamale Ebola case was a hoax.
He claims that the Ghana Health Service’s national officers and other regional health directorates regularly perform simulation exercises to gauge how well-prepared they are to handle disease outbreaks.
“There is no Ebola in Ghana. Very often, officers from the Disease Surveillance Department of the Ghana Health Service, carry out simulation exercises to see if our preparedness for tackling some outbreaks is okay.
“When we find that we are not well-prepared, we improve it.
“What happened in Tamale was a simulation exercise. Someone didn’t understand it and misreported it as an Ebola case. It is just a simulation.
“We have simulations for various diseases in Ghana. Everyone should be rest assured that there is no Ebola in Ghana,” Dr. Kuma-Aboagye.
Many people expressed their fear in response to reports of an apparent Ebola case in the Northern Region by posting varied remarks on social media.
The story has since been debunked by the nation’s health authorities, but Ebola quickly rose to the top of Twitter trends.