According to Ms. Eunice Joan Teah, the Central Regional Director in Charge of Health Promotions at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), "epidemic preparedness financing is something we cannot do without" as a country.
Her belief is supported by the statement that "you cannot predict when an epidemic will break out," which emphasizes the importance of being appropriately prepared to deal with epidemics when they arise.
According to her, proper logistics and adequately trained human resources were needed whenever an outbreak occurred, and those requirements could only be met when provisions "are made through advanced preparations."
"We require logistics to respond to epidemics, and they cannot be mobilized in a short amount of time if there is no set budget to work with. And you and I both know that the answer will be delayed if the logistics are not accessible," Ms. Teah said in an interview with Graphic Online.
She pointed out that the degree to which a nation prepared itself for such unforeseeable catastrophes determined whether people would receive the necessary medical or logistical assistance during epidemics or outbreaks; as a result, the government needed to set up a fund that would help respond to such emergencies.
She said that if the nation fails to establish an emergency readiness and response fund, it will only be able to record its losses.
If there were a disease breakout without treatment, in her opinion, everyone's life would be in jeopardy.
any preparedness, highlighting the fact that "it basically affects everything" when a disease epidemic occurs.
M. Teah gave an example of how incidents of individuals coughing occurred in numerous regions of the nation in the early years of 2023 and said that such a problem should have been looked into right away to determine the reason for the cough.
She pointed out that funding and preparation for epidemics were crucial for any society's health, especially at this time when there had been occurrences of new illnesses.
According to her, if protocols are put in place to handle epidemics, health staff will be able to manage such epidemics quickly and won't ever feel overburdened by the circumstances.
For instance, using COVID-19, Ms. Teah noted that many health systems were overburdened during COVID-19 as a result of a lack of planning for an outbreak of this size.
According to her, COVID-19 should serve as a valuable lesson for all governments, especially emerging ones like Ghana, to better prepare for such catastrophes.
According to Ms. Teah, funding for epidemic preparation will benefit residents by providing them with effective and efficient care in the event of an outbreak of any size. On the other hand, if "no provisions were made for it," it would eventually destroy the whole economy and have a terrible impact on people's health.
"If epidemics occur and there are no logistics, we cannot respond to the situation, and, within a short period of time, many people will be infected and others may die, and the situation will ultimately get out of hand," she said.
She believes that everyone should be interested in the issue given the significance of funding and responding to epidemic preparation in order for the nation to understand it.
As a health promotion professional, Ms. Teah stated, "From where I stand, I will say that all stakeholders need to have their hands on deck to ensure they get funding set aside to respond to this."
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