COVID-19 effects on national health system response to a local epidemic: the case of cerebrospinal meningitis outbreak in Ghana

The present novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has reached unprecedented globally, overwhelming many health care systems. In the midst of this, Ghana is saddled with the outbreak of an epidemic disease of public health importance—cerebrospinal meningitis (CSM). With over 1000 cases of COVID-19 confirmed and still counting, a total of 409 CSM cases of CSM has been reported in the country, with the gravity of the latter apparently condoned. While the end to COVID-19 is uncertain, a coordinated set of public health interventions that prioritize local epidemics are important to ensure a continuum of health care for the population. Health policy actors must race against time to ensure decisions on containing the current CSM outbreak is based on scientific evidence of the epidemiology of the disease in the settings while building local capacity (human and infrastructure) for current and future local epidemics.