Senior high schools in the Upper East Region will be going on vacation tomorrow, yet the proposed screening for traces of the deadly cerebro spinal meningitis (CSM) before they go home had not started in the Bolgatanga and its neighbouring districts as at the time of filing this report.
DAILY GUIDE has, however, learnt that there was a screening exercise in the Bawku Municipality contrary to assurance by the Regional Health Directorate that the screening will be simultaneously done across the senior high schools in the region to cover every student before they go home.
So far, three senior high schools in the Upper East Region — Bawku Secondary Techical School, Tempane Senior High School and Zuarungu Senior High School  — have recorded some cases of CSM, including fatalities.
The assurance to screen students in the various senior high schools brought a lot of relief, but this may not materialise till January 2018, when schools re-open.
The last death reported in the region was the one involving a 20-year-old female student of the Zuarungu Senior High School, which happened on Sunday, December 17 in the Bolgatanga Municipality, and authorities at both the Ghana Education Service (GES) and the Ghana Health Service (GHS) are hopeful that no more deaths will be recorded once the students adhere to basic prevention rules.
On Tuesday, December 19, some residents of Bolgatanga who spoke in separate interviews with the DAILY GUIDE blamed the Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service for not embarking on public education this year against the spread of cerebro spinal meningitis as they have done in the past.
In the past, the Ghana Health Service in the Upper East Region had been loud around the CSM period from October to April, but this year, the directorate has not been heard much on the preventions and treatments, as well as symptoms of cerebro spinal meningitis.
However, the directorate is reported to have done some radio interviews in October 2017 and probably expected that the public would remember the message even at December, so as to prevent the spread of CSM.
It is a known fact that the Upper East Region is on the meningitis belt and so on yearly basis, the Ghana Health Service is expected to embark on series of public education, especially on prevention and treatment through its communication channels, including the media.
In recent time, the relationship between the Ghana Health Service has been like that of a patient and a doctor; they interact as and when the condition of the patient is bad.
The media struggles to get information from the Ghana Health Service and sometimes they are denied information because a senior officer has not given the go-ahead. It is, therefore, not surprising that the Ghana Health Service only goes to the media when the need for the media’s intervention is seriously needed to save a situation.
If the relationship was cordial, the supposed education on CMS that was done in October 2017 should have been done on majority of the local radio stations and the live presenter mentions(LPM) and jingles should have continued from October through December to January and finally to April, when the CSM period is expected to be ‘over’.
Since the reports of the spread of CSM started, some radio stations have volunteered to put out some preventive measures, and it is expected that students going home and the general public will abide by these rules to prevent the spread of CSM.
 From Ebo Bruce-Quansah, Bolgatanga