KUMACA MYSTERY DEATHS-MENINGITIS RESPONSIBLE
Meningitis has
been established as the cause of a series of deaths among students of the
Kumasi Academy popularly known as KUMACA in recent weeks.
It has also been confirmed
that a total of four students of the school have so far died of the disease.
Briefing the media in Kumasi today on the outcome of medical investigations
into the mysterious deaths, the Ashanti Regional Minister, Simon Osei Mensah,
disclosed also that 26 of the students have been infected with the disease and
hospitalised.
However, 23 of them have been discharged with three of them still
on admission at various hospitals in the region.
According to the Regional
Minister, all the cases were reported between 22nd and 31st
of last month with the infected students first reporting of headache, neck
pains, feverishness and vomiting.
They were receiving medicare at different
hospitals including the St. Patrick at Offinso Maase and St. Michael at
Jachie-Pramso where the four passed on.
Following the alarming situation, a
detailed investigation was conducted by a technical committee of experts
including representation from the Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospital, Kwame Nkrumah
University of Science and Technology and the Ghana Health Service.
The
investigation involved laboratory tests and autopsy at the KNUST’s School of
Medical Science and two of the Hospitals where the students died while being
treated. What the health experts have not been able to established yet is the
actual causative agent to determine the type of Meningitis that is responsible
for the infections.
For this reason, samples of dead tissues of the infected
persons have been sent to the Noguchi Memorial Medical Research for further
investigation.
The Regional Minister detailed the symptons of the disease which
look similar to Malaria.
The
infection was occasioned by factors such as over crowding and poor ventilation especially
at the Dormitories which the school’s authorities have accepted to correct as
assured by the Headmistress, Madam Eunice Appiah.
Meanwhile, the
Headmistress has indicated that even though the students appeared to have
psyched themselves up already, the School’s Board of Governors will meet today , April 5 to decide whether or not to allow time table for the End-of-Terminal
Examination which was scheduled to start today, to remain same after
considering all relevant factors.
Also, the students who went home as a result
of the apprehension have returned to campus.
The Regional Minister noted that
as an immediate intervention, each of the senior high schools in the Ashanti
region will be assigned to a specific hospital with the view to helping early
detection of any common ailment to the schools.
He noted that if this was the
arrangement before the KUMACA incident, some of the deceased students could
have been saved.
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