GPCC On Ghana�s Preparedness Towards Any Potential Outbreak Of The Ebola Virus

The Ghana Pentecostal and Charismatic Council over the last few weeks has been monitoring developments on the outbreak and rapid spread of the Ebola Virus within the West African Sub-region, especially in the Mano River states of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, including the recent outbreaks in Nigeria with great concern. If the handling of the recent outbreak of cholera in the Greater Accra Region is anything to go by, then a comprehensive preventive approach to dealing with any potential outbreak of the Ebola Virus in Ghana is no longer an option but an absolute necessity. While commending Government on efforts made so far, including the recent launch of an Inter-Ministerial Coordinating Committee on Ebola to coordinate a national response to this pandemic, the Council wishes to call on all Ghanaians as a matter of urgency to take personal and collective responsibility to protecting ourselves against any potential outbreak of this deadly virus, which has already been declared by the WHO as an International Public Health Emergency. While we would continue to exercise our faith in God through prayer, we also believe that knowledge and a better understanding of the disease, including the adoption of practical behavioural and attitudinal changes by all Ghanaians are the surest ways to minimising the potential spread and impact of any outbreak, if not completely preventing it. It is in view of these that the Council wishes to lend its support to current national efforts aimed at containing any potential outbreak of the Ebola disease and the further spread of the recent cholera outbreak in parts of Greater Accra Region. The Council is therefore rolling out a nationwide sustained Public Prevention Awareness Education (PPAE) on Ebola and Cholera through our network of 200 member churches and their over 15,000 branches across the country. While pursuing the PPAE on personal hygiene and protection, we are also urging all local assemblies of our member churches to particularly adopt the following suggested practical steps for the time being, to protect their local congregations from any potential Ebola infections as well as the spread of cholera, which is already with us: 1. Minimise church or congregational practices that encourage body contacts, such as hand-shaking, hugging/embracing, exchange of communion cups, and waving of handkerchiefs. 2. Regular disinfection of microphones and door handles before, during and after church services. 3. Placing of sanitizing dispensers or hand washing dispenser at entrances or vantage points including urinals/lavatories within the church premises and encourage congregation members to use them before, during and after church services. 4. Provision of protective hand gloves for church ushers or workers handling or counting money, and 5. Any other practical steps that the local church deems fit in support of the preventive approaches being suggested. The Council in addition to all these measures would also be liaising with the Christian Health Associations of Ghana (CHAG) to explore other support that would be needed by its members, particularly their institutions providing services in remote rural communities along borders with our neighbouring countries. While we call on all Ghanaians to continue to pray for God�s protection over our land, let us also remember our compatriots in Guinea, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Nigeria in prayers. Rt. Rev. Dr. Edem Tettey Aps. Dr. Opoku Onyinah (Ag. Gen. Secretary) (President)