Minister calls for further investigations into cause of KUMACA deaths

The Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei-Mensah is calling for further investigations into the cause of strange deaths at Kumasi Academy in the Asokore-Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region.

Indications are that all 11 deaths were as a result of H1N1 otherwise known as swine flu but the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said that may not be the definite cause of death as more research is still being conducted.

According to Mr Osei Mensah, both symptoms of H1N1 and meningitis are similar therefore it will be appropriate for the Ghana Health Service (GHS) to conduct a second test to come out with the real cause of the death.

The Regional Minister explained on Adom Fm that though he is not a health expert, he believes H1N1 may not be the only cause as established by experts from GHS and World Health Organization (WHO).

“Both have similar causes and symptoms such as body aches, chills, cough, fatigue, fever, headache, loss of appetite, sore throat. So we shouldn’t end here. We must carry the investigations further to know if there is another cause and what we have to do so that another students do not die”, Hon. Simon Osei-Mensah suggested

According to Hon. Simon Osei-Mensah, though he does not doubt the entire report from experts of Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research but he is offering suggestion and advice.

The Health Minister Kwaku Agyemang Manu announced 12 out of the 19 cases sent to the Noguchi Memorial Institute have tested positive for the virus with Influenza type A that has the H1N1 Pandemic strain.

Before students were rushed to various hospitals in Kumasi in what was initially suspected to be an outbreak of meningitis, they complained of “fever-like conditions” at the school’s clinic.

Tests however proved negative for meningitis with health officials contemplating what exactly may have caused the deaths of four students.