Tse-tse Fly Infestation In Ghana Spells Health Havoc

Ghana’s Deputy Veterinary Services Chief Dr Christopher Kwame Doku has warned of a looming health havoc from an invasion of Tse-tse flies which transmit sleeping Sickness. According to the top Veterinary Surgeon, at least 60- percent of Ghana is infested with tsetse flies exposing the whole Country to a possible health Crisis unless stepps are taken to urgently address the issue.

Sleeping sickness, trypanosomiasis, is a slow killer transmitted by the tsetse fly to both humans and animals. "It is a disease that will eat you up gradually and in most cases render you unproductive until you die. The Ghana News Agency (GNA) quotes Dr Doku as saying. He has spent 22 years in the bush researching the disease's prevalence in livestock.

Two people recently died in the Western Region of the disease that experts say has assumed a serious threat to manpower development especially in the rural areas where it is most prevalent. There is no vaccine against sleeping seekness which has destroyed nearly 40 percent of Ghana’s livestock. Cattle, sheep, goats are the most afflicted while horses rarely survive in endemic areas.

The Deputy Veterinary chief says the disease could only be controlled through massive spraying with designated chemicals most of which are toxic and expensive. It could take at least the next 20 years to spray Ghana's total infested area, and besides the awareness that it is mainly found along major rivers there is very little information on the disease despite its devastating effect.

The Ghana government, through the World Health Organisation, has made efforts to make the needed chemicals available.