Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ID: ELIC202519 (Poster 068) | Published: 01 Aug 2025
Azumah Abdul-Tawab1,&, Franklin Aseidu-Bekoe1, Joshua Arthur1, Farida Abdulai2, Isaac Baffoe Nyarko1, Dennis Laryea1
1Public Health Division, Ghana Health Service, Accra, Ghana, 2Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate-Ghana Health Service, Accra, Ghana
&Corresponding author: Azumah Abdul-Tawab, Ghana Health Service, Accra, Ghana, Email: azumahabdultawab@gmail.com
Received: 30 Apr 2025, Accepted: 09 July 2025, Published: 01 Aug 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: AAR- After Action Review, IPC- Infection Prevention and Control, IHR-International Health Regulations 2005, GHS-Ghana Health Service
©Azumah Abdul-Tawab et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Azumah Abdul-Tawab et al., From outbreak to opportunity: Reflections and recommendations from Ghana’s 2023 Lassa fever response. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc5):00212. https://doi.org/10.37432/JIEPH-CONFPRO5-00212
Lassa Fever is endemic in parts of West Africa, yet Ghana had reported only sporadic cases until 2023. On February 24, 2023, a Lassa Fever outbreak was declared in Ghana after two cases were confirmed in the Greater Accra Region. Over the following eight weeks, 27 confirmed cases were recorded across five districts, with one death and 237 contacts identified. Although the outbreak was swiftly contained within one region, it exposed critical gaps in Ghana’s public health response systems specifically in surveillance, laboratory diagnostics, infection prevention and control (IPC), risk communication, and coordination.
In accordance with International Health Regulations (IHR), the Ghana Health Service (GHS), with support from the World Health Organization (WHO), conducted a structured three-day After-Action Review (AAR) in November 2023. The AAR brought together national, regional, and district-level stakeholders and divided them into five technical areas: surveillance and contact tracing, case management and IPC, risk communication and community engagement, laboratory diagnostics, and coordination and resource mobilization.
Key successes included timely case detection, rapid laboratory confirmation, and effective coordination, which were informed by Ghana’s previous outbreak experiences with COVID-19 and Marburg virus. However, limitations such as suboptimal IPC practices, low public awareness, funding constraints, and communication gaps between institutions hindered the overall response. The AAR resulted in several recommendations: strengthening IPC training, integrating teaching hospitals into emergency response systems, improving access to emergency funding, upgrading laboratory capacity, and enhancing community engagement strategies.
The exercise provided actionable insights to improve Ghana’s preparedness and response mechanisms for future outbreaks. Implementing these recommendations will reinforce Ghana’s health security architecture and establish the country as a leader in public health emergency preparedness in West Africa.
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