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Govtto decide on hydroxychloroquinefor COVID-19 case management
Ghana’s COVID-19 case management team is deliberating on whether to continue or stop using hydroxychloroquine as one of the drugs for the management of the disease in the country.
This comes on the heels of a decision by the World Health Organisation (WHO) to halt the testing of the malaria drug as a possible treatment for coronavirus over safety fears discovered in some recent studies.
The Director–General of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) DrPatrick Aboagye who disclosed this at yesterday’s COVID-19 briefing in Accra said the decision would be announced in due course.
“As I speak now, of course, we will wait for the formal communication but the case management team is meeting to take a decision on what to do. When they do we will adequately communicate to you”, he said.
He, however, explained that the drug in question was currentlyadministered to only persons under criticalconditions, adding that those being managed at their respective houses do not take hydroxychloroquine.
“We only use it [hydroxychloroquine] for critical cases. We do not use it for routine cases. Those who are being managed at home do not take hydroxychloroquine”, he explained.
Hydroxychloroquine was an approved drug for the treatment of malaria as well as conditions like lupus or arthritis. In the absence of a cure for COVID-19 it has been helping in case management. The ongoing testing was to confirm its efficacy.
However, WHO director-general TedrosAdhanomGhebreyesuson Monday said the drug would be dropped temporarily from its global study into experimental coronavirus treatments after safety concerns.
The concerns were discovered by a paper published last week in the Lancet that showed people taking the drug were at higher risk of death and heart problems than those who were not.
“The executive group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the solidarity trial while the safety data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board,” MrGhebreyesussaid.
He said the concern related only to the use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine for COVID-19, adding that the drugs were acknowledged treatments for people with malaria and auto-immune diseases.
Other treatments in the WHO’s solidarity trial, including the experimental drug remdesivir and an HIV combination therapy, he said were still being pursued by scientists.
BY JONATHAN DONKOR
News
Bishop Salifu Amoako and wife arrested over their son’s accident
The Founder and General Overseer of Alive Chapel International, Bishop Elisha Salifu Amoako and her wife, Mouha Amoako have been arrested over the accident of their son which claimed two lives.
In a statement today, they revealed that “The Ghana Police Service has today 15th October 2024, arrested suspects, Bishop Elisha Salifu Amoako and Mouha Amoako, parents of the suspect driver involved in the fatal accident that claimed two lives at East Legon on Saturday, 12th October 2024.”
According to them, “Investigations have so far established that on 12th October 2024, suspect driver, Elrad Salifu Amoako, aged 16, driving a Jaguar SUV vehicle with registration number GN 7801- 20 with one other occupant, rammed into a 4×4 Acura vehicle also with registration number GR 2542 – 23, driven by Joseph Ackah with four other occupants, at Mensah Wood Street at East Legon. Both cars caught fire and burned beyond recognition.”
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme
Read full statement below
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All discrepancies identified have been fixed- EC
According to the Electoral Commission (EC) they have fixed all discrepancies in the Voters Register identified during the Exhibition period.
The EC Chairperson, Jean Mensa made this revelation when addressing the issue during a live broadcast at the Inter-Party Advisory Committee (IPAC) meeting on Tuesday, October 15, 2024, at the Alisa Hotel in Accra.
She emphasized the Commission’s commitment to ensuring public confidence in the electoral process and delivering credible elections.
Jean Mensa assured voters that the necessary corrections have been made to guarantee an accurate voter register for the upcoming 2024 general elections.
According to her, “Over the last two weeks, we have spent our energies to clean the voter register and to ensure that the information presented is accurate. Simply put, we have worked to ensure that every applicant who registered in 2023/2024 is on the voter register.”
“We are confident that the revised Provisional Voter Register that we present starting today is a marked departure from the register we presented during the exhibition exercise,” she added.
“Largely, all discrepancies identified to date have been fixed, as we promised, during our last meeting starting today, October 15, to October 19, all registered voters will have a second opportunity to review their details online and report anything they find in our district offices,” Jean Mensa revealed.
Additionally, she promised to hand over hard drive copies of the voter register to the various political parties including a template to register any discrepancies.
By Edem Mensah-Tsotorme