Ministry urged to establish a National Diarrhoea Day

Cape Coast, Nov. 8, GNA - Mrs Nana Garbrah Aidoo, a Consultant of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA) on the Public-Private Partnership on Hand Washing with Soap (PPPH) initiative, on Friday, called on the Ministry of Health (MOH) to give diarrhoea the necessary publicity by instituting a National Diarrhoea Day.

She said since the disease is the third major reported illnesses and accounted for 25 per cent of deaths among children under five years old in the country it should be given the necessary attention just as is being done to Aids and Malaria.

The Consultant made the call at a workshop on the PPPH initiative in Cape Coast for stakeholders from both the public and private sectors in the Central region.

The workshop organised by CWSA was aimed at promoting hand washing with soap at critical times to reduce morbidity and mortality from diarrhoeal diseases.

She urged people to constantly wash their hands with soap and clean water before eating, after using the toilet, cleaning up a child and before feeding a child, stressing that, "this is the only way one could prevent diarrhoeal diseases".

Mr Francis Awindaogo, Regional Director of CWSA, in a speech read on hid behalf pointed out that the PPPH initiative designed to promote the washing of hands to ward off diarrhoeal diseases was not peculiar to Ghana.

He said the initiative was assuming a global dimension since it was started two years ago in Ghana, adding that, it has been joined by countries like Senegal, Nepal, Peru, China, Mongolia and India with the Ghana initiative as the model.

The Regional Director advised the participants to take the workshop seriously to promote hand washing to save lives.