Transform The GHS Mortuaries Department Into Transition Department - Key Frontline Healthcare Professionals In Serial-Pandemics Era 

As more and more forests are cleared worldwide, humankind must face the fact that there will be a spike in zoonotic diseases. No question. We are moving into the era of serial pandemics. Thus, if we are to survive that new era, we must radically change how we view cadavers.

In cases like Ebola, for example, the virus is at its deadliest, in dead bodies. That could also be the case, in other yet-to-evolve zoonotic diseases, in the not too distant future. Leaking body bags in cemeteries contaminating soils and groundwater, countrywide, is a risk we must not subject future generations to. Ever.

The question is: Does that call for us to accept that no matter our status in society, when we die, our bodies will not be released to our families, but will be quickly cremated by the state, as a public health measure? Logically, burying dead bodies will not make sense, in the era of serial pandemics.

We will only have our memories of family members and friends, who passed away, to remember them by - as we will no longer see them laid in state for viewing. Perhaps we will also have their funerals at the same time that they are cremated - in private ceremonies limited to only 25 individuals observing disease-prevention protocols.

In view of all the above, the organisers of the Ghana National Medical Excellence Awards, deserve praise, for advocating for the rebranding of the Mortuaries Department of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), and calling for the adoption of the name Transition Department - whose professionals (in both the public and private sectors), will be key frontline healthcare workers, in our nation's fight to survive the era of serial-pandemics.