General News of Thursday, 11 September 2014
Source: Daily Searchlight
Military Authorities have flatly denied that any of its soldiers has contracted the dreaded Ebola disease.
According to the Military Authorities, there is no record of any soldier contracting or dying from the disease in recent times.
“The only soldier we have lost was a gentleman in Liberia.
He flew from Ghana to Liberia on a mission but died the very next day on arrival.
Obviously, that could not have been Ebola because that would mean that he carried the disease from Ghana,” he said.
In a conversation with the Daily Searchlight in response to acute rumours doing the rounds in various barracks that some soldiers from Ghana have died in Liberia, Lt. Col Aggrey Quarshie, Head of the Public Affairs Unit of the Ghana Armed Forces said there is no truth to the claims.
He said that about two days ago, one soldier with the United Nations Mission to Liberia died twenty-four hours after arriving in Liberia from Ghana.
“He had just arrived to join the United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNAMIL) when he collapsed and died. It was too sudden to be Ebola,” he said.
Lt. Col. Aggrey Quarshie said that the soldiers who came back home from Liberia were also quarantined and monitored for nineteen days before being allowed to fly back to Ghana.
“Since they came back about two weeks ago, we have kept them under close supervision, not nip any contagion in the bud,” he said. He said that an Ebola infection is not something that anybody would be interested in hiding.
“It would mean that we are putting the families and the entirety of the Army at risk, including our very selves.
That would be very irresponsible and believe me, we would not do that,” he said.
He emphasized that they live under close quarters at the barracks, and any contagion would spread rapidly.
In that direction, the army is taking extreme measures to battle any possible infection, not only from Ebola, but cholera as well.
“All those who sell food, as well as their dependents and assistants, are being screened.
We have also sent medical and education teams to all barracks across the country to educate them on measures to take. We take the lives and well-being of our soldiers serious,” he said.