Acting Chief Executive Officer of the National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Dr. Bernard Okoe Boye, has admonished the public to maintain proper hygiene in the wake of Ghana recording cases of the new zoonotic disease, monkeypox.
Contributing to a discussion on the subject matter on Metro TV’s ‘Good Morning Ghana’ on June 9, Dr. Okoe Boye indicated that maintaining good hygiene was one sure means of avoiding the contraction of the disease.
He, however, added that, unlike Covid-19, the monkeypox was not highly contagious.
Detailing the transmission mode, the former MP for Ledzokuku said the disease was transmitted through close contact such as sex, hugging and kissing.
“All I can tell the public is that you got to keep your hygiene very good. Usually, the general rule is that if your hygiene is good, you are less likely to come across such diseases.
“It’s a zoonotic disease. It means it normally harbors in animals, so when your condition is very filthy, you are likely to come into contact [with it].
“The second thing is that, unlike Covid, which is highly contagious, this one, the good news is that it is not too contagious. Honestly, there’s no need for panic.
“It is gotten through close contact. Close meaning that body to body either through hugging, kissing, coming to contact fluid from the other person or exhaled air…when you are in a closed space like this…air condition.
“So it’s not strictly respiratory like Covid. This one can be spread through sex, body contact and other things,” Dr. Okoe Boye said.
The Ghana Health Service (GHS), through its Director-General Dr. Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, on Wednesday, June 8, confirmed that the country had recorded five cases of the monkeypox.
The recorded cases were in the Eastern, Western and Greater Accra regions.
GHS said t detected 12 suspected cases that were investigated in the country.
Dr. Kuma-Aboagye noted that “one of the cases was recorded in a Ghanaian who travelled from the United States of America to Ghana, so he might have picked it up from there.”
Ghanaweb
