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Regional News of Thursday, 19 February 2004

Source: GNA

Ketu District records 164 cholera cases with six deaths

Aflao, Feb. 19, GNA - The number of victims of the cholera outbreak in the Ketu District now stands at six out of 164 cases between January and February this year.

In all 38 communities were affected, with Adina registering the highest number of cases - 40, while nine of the cases and one of the casualties came from the Republic of Togo.

Dr Michael Ahedor, District Director of Ghana Health Services (GHS), in an interview with the Ghana News Agency said the situation was under control, adding that there was enough logistics to handle the situation, which looked disturbing about two weeks ago.

He said the GHS would create camps at strategic locations outside the district hospital for the treatment of the cases to prevent further spread of the disease to cater for patients being moved from far away communities to the hospital.

Dr Ahedor appealed to the communities to practise good hygiene to forestall any further outbreak of the disease.

He said the simultaneous outbreak of the disease in the district and neighbouring Togo, which also registered higher casualty figures this year, could be as a result of the cross border movement of the people in the two communities.

Dr Ahedor noted that the pattern of the outbreak in Togo and the Ketu District at the same time suggested that the virus was transmitted during the cross-border movements.

He said the district authorities and their Togolese counterparts would be exchanging notes to prevent further outbreak of the disease in the two communities.