The Ghana Health Service (GHS) has issued a health alert following a confirmed rabies outbreak in the Ashanti Region.
As of Monday, September 12, 2022, the region had recorded a total of four confirmed cases and one probable case. The cases were reported from Asante Akim South, Bosomtwe and Kwabre East with a case fatality rate of 100 per cent.
“The Regional Health Directorate brings to the notice of all health facilities, a rise in the confirmed outbreak of rabies and deaths in three districts in the Ashanti Region,” the Service said in an alert.
The GHS alert further urged all health facilities across the country to start taking precautions against the disease.
It added that the facilities should be on the lookout for suspected cases of persons with headaches, neck pain, nausea, and fever, fear of water, anxiety, agitation, abnormal tingling sensations or pain at the wound site or contact with a rabid animal.
The GHS also ordered all the Regional Health Directorates across the country to enhance community/public sensitization to rabies, improve case search for rabies in the facilities, follow up and treat all cases of dog bites, and liaise with veterinary officers in districts for dog vaccination exercise.
