Accra, April 30, GNA – Ghana’s Accra Psychiatric Hospital has confirmed that a patient has tested positive for Covid-19, raising concern about protection for other patients and staff.
The infected woman who came from outside was admitted to the acute care ward of the government-run hospital on April 20, 2020 and developed symptoms within days.
She was tested for Covid-19 and transferred to an isolation unit on April 23, and her test was confirmed positive on April 27.
Dr. Akwasi Osei, Head of the Mental Health Authority, told the Ghana News Agency on Thursday that the patient came to the hospital, after she was tested negative at a private clinic.
“She was an outpatient who came and there she developed the symptoms and she was tested positive. She had earlier been tested at a private clinic where she developed the symptoms, which was suggestive of the disease [coronavirus], fever, coughing, and but was tested negative.
“When she came to the ward [psychiatric hospital], she developed fever again and she was tested and she became positive. This is like a case which has developed from outside.”
Dr Osei said the woman in question had been transferred to the treatment centre while the rest of the patients who were in that ward and all the staff have been tested and isolated, pending the outcome of the results.
Shantha Rau Barriga, Disability Rights Director, Human Rights Watch, in a statement copied to the Ghana News Agency, said, to prevent further infections at the facility, the Government should immediately ensure that all psychiatric hospitals in Ghana test staff and patients, release as many patients as possible to avoid overcrowding, and ensure that staff and patients have adequate personal protective equipment.
“Despite the best efforts of hospital staff, many patients, staff, and their families are now at risk because they had contact with a patient who has contracted Covid-19,” she said.
“Closed settings like psychiatric hospitals act as incubators for the virus, wherever possible, people with mental health conditions should be allowed to leave if they choose,” she added.
After the woman’s positive Covid-19 diagnosis, the hospital attempted to transfer her to the Covid-19 treatment center, but the municipal authorities, who have to approve any such transfer, refused, Human Rights Watch quoted Dr Osei as saying, and “They refused because she was a mental health patient.”
“This is obvious discrimination,” he told Human Rights Watch. “If this person didn’t have a mental health condition, she would have been allowed to go to the treatment center. They are just afraid. But people with psychosocial disabilities should have the same access to Covid-19 treatment as anyone else.”
The psychiatric hospital has approximately 370 in-house patients, 11 of whom are in the women’s acute ward and 80 of whom have been admitted to the hospital through Ghana’s court system.
GNA