Two Nyankumasi SHS students die from meningitis in Assin South

Health Authorities in the Central Region have confirmed the death of two students of the Nyankumasi Senior High School in the Assin South District following cases of meningitis. Health authorities have said Central Region has recorded several cases of meningitis in some communities within the district.

The first of the students died on January 29, at the Cape Coast Teaching Hospital after reporting for treatment.This deceased was one of three students treated for meningitis.Some two weeks later, one other student who had gone home with an exeat reported at the St. Francis Xavier Hospital in Assin Fosu and died.

The Central Regional Deputy Director of Public Health of the Ghana Health Service, Dr. Kwamina Sarpong, noted that his outfit was taking proactive measures in the Assin area to curb the further spread of the disease.

After the first death, Dr. Sarpong said the Nyankumasi SHS community had been engaged by the health directorate. “We took the opportunity to speak about meningitis to the student body and staff. We screened them to see if we could get additional students complaining about the symptoms so we could quickly treat them but we didn’t find any.”

Since the second death, he assured that the directorate “heightened our surveillance in all the schools in Assin Fosu, particularly in Assin area.”Meningitis is an inflammation of the meninges, the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord.It can be caused by a variety of organisms that include bacteria, fungi or viruses.

There have been outbreaks of meningitis in the past, the most recent being in 2017 where over 60 people were put under surveillance following the death of some six students from meningitis nationwide.