Prestea records 13 cholera cases, one dead

The Prestea-Huni-Valley District of the Western Region has recorded 13 reported cholera cases since August this year.

Out of the number, seven cases have been confirmed and one death recorded.

Robert Nterful, the District Disease Control Officer who disclosed this, stated that the first of the cases was recorded at Huni-Valley.

He indicated that infected person hailed from Kutukrom in the Nzema East Municipality but was diagnosed of the disease when he visited the hospital in Prestea.

“The rest were recorded in Bogoso and other communities in the district.”

He indicated that the district used to refer suspected cholera cases to the Public Health Reference Laboratory at the Effia- Nkwanta Regional Hospital in Sekondi.

“But now, the laboratory at the Tarkwa Government Hospital has been equipped to conduct diagnosis on suspected cholera cases,” he disclosed.

A recent visit by DAILY GUIDE to the area revealed that the market centres and slums and in the district have been engulfed with filth for several months.

It was also revealed that uncollected waste had found its way into the drainage system and other open spaces.

DAILY GUIDE learnt that the district assembly was making efforts to improve access to treated drinking water in the communities as part of measures to reduce vulnerability to cholera and other diarrhoeal diseases.

The District Deputy Environmental Officer, Isaac Torxe, indicated that his outfit was collaborating with the District Health Directorate to educate the people about the disease and how it could be prevented.

He appealed to residents to desist from the practice of dumping refuse and faecal matter into the gutters, adding, “It does not only choke the gutters but also breed mosquitoes and attract flies which contaminate our foods.”

He stressed that there was the need for proper sanitary practices through the provision of safe water, facilities for proper disposal of faeces and refuse since cholera transmission is closely linked to inadequate environmental management.

He recommended the need for the public to avoid the consumption of cold meals since they could be the source of spreading the disease.

He pointed out that cholera remained a global threat to public health and advised that punitive measures should be put in place to curb the disease and its associated problems.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingestion of food or water contaminated with the bacterium Vibrio cholera that could result in a profound and rapidly progressive dehydration and death.

Symptoms are profuse painless watery diarrhoeal without fever and or often associated with vomiting of clear fluid which usually starts suddenly.

The disease has killed at least 60 people in Ghana since June and infected more than 5,000 others, the Ghana Health Service, has indicated.

The outbreak of the disease was centered in impoverished communities in urban areas in the south that lack adequate toilets, but there are also a few cases in rural parts in the north.

About 300 people are being infected a day with the highly contagious disease, putting pressure on local health facilities.