Coronavirus: Plans are far advanced to begin using blood of recovered patients to treat severe cases – Dr Owu

The National COVID-19 case management coordinator for severe and critical cases, Dr Christian Owu has disclosed in an interview that Ghana is waiting for approval from regulators to begin using blood of patients who have recovered from the virus to treat persons in critical conditions.

In an interview with Accra based Joy FM and monitored by saltfmonline.com, Dr Owu who is also the head at the University of Ghana Medical Centre said “ We have not started using the method yet but work on it is at the advanced stage. In a short period of time, we may have the capacity to do that. To be able to do that it has to be licenced by the FDA and other regulatory authorities“.

President Akufo-Addo on May 24, 2020, revealed that there were 16 severe cases at the Intensive Care Unit receiving treatment.

The Ghana Health Service in its last update on 24th May 2020 disclosed 6,683 h as s been confirmed nationwide with 1,998 recoveries and 32 deaths.

Regional Breakdown of cases. The Savannah region became the 14th region to record a case in the last update. This means only two regions have not recorded any cases so far.

Greater Accra Region – 4,798

Ashanti Region – 1,049

Central Region – 299

Western Region – 210

Eastern Region – 106

Western North Region – 61

Volta Region – 47

Northern Region – 36

Oti Region – 26

Upper East Region – 26

Upper West Region – 21

North East Region – 2

Savannah Region – 1

Bono Region – 1

Ahafo Region – 0

Bono East Region – 0