Cholera Outbreak Spreads

The Jomoro District Directorate of the Ghana Health Service has appealed to government, benevolent societies and philanthropists to help acquire the necessary drugs to deal with the outbreak of cholera in the Elubo area.

The cholera outbreak, which has claimed two lives so far, out of 110 cases, is getting out of hand because of lack of medication to tackle the spread.

Charlotte Dankwa, acting District Director of health, said cholera cases at the Elubo Health Centre had increased from 33 on May 12 to 110 on May 17, 2012.

She therefore appealed for support to contain the outbreak.

Ms Dankwa made the appeal at Half Assini on Friday when addressing the newly formed district Cholera Outbreak Rapid Respond Team.

She said 20 of the cases were brought from the Ivorian side of the border, adding that the outbreak was due to the pollution of the Tano River that served as the drinking water for the people along it.

She added that drugs and other items for the treatment of the cholera had run out at the Half Assini and a request sent to the Western Regional Central Store at Effia Nkwanta in Sekondi for drugs was yet to receive attention.

The two dead people were from villages dotted along the Tano River, near Elubo in the Jomoro District.

According to the physician assistant in charge of Elubo Health Centre, Thomas Addae, 42-year-old Grace Tandoh and 53-year-old Peter Ackah, who died on 9th and 15th May 2012 respectively, were buried immediately because of the nature of the disease.

Medical personnel including disease control officers, environmental officers have been dispatched to the area.

Kwesi Nyamekye, 67, from Kojo Black, a farming village six kilometers from Elubo, who died on the way to Elubo Health Centre due to frequent stools and vomiting on May 9, 2012, was also buried immediately that day.

The medical team confirmed that they heard of Nyamekye's death but since he did not die at the health facility and the case had not been scientifically proven, they never attributed his death to cholera.

According to Mr. Addae, people started reporting of frequent stool and vomiting on May 8, 2012 so the health centre alerted the District Director of Health Services, the Disease Control Officer and District Environmental Health Officer of suspected cholera.

He mentioned Elubo, Cocoa Town, Noe and Seikro (Ivorian border towns near Elubo), French Nungua and Kojo Black as the most affected communities along the Tano River.

A laboratory analysis of five specimen, including one from nearby Noe, a border town near Elubo, conducted at the Effia Nkwanta Regional Hospital, confirmed four as positive and one negative.

According to the Jomoro District Disease Control Officer, Joe Azabiri, the medical team had visited the villages along the River Tano with the District Chief Executive.

Mr Azabiri said 14 of such cases came from villages along the La Cote d'Ivoire border and that the Ghanaian medical team was yet to ascertain the results of specimen from suspected cases in Noe which were taken to a government hospital in Abidjan.

He pointed out that personal and environmental cleanliness as well as pollution from the River Tano, the main source of drinking water for many communities along, might be the causes of the cholera outbreak.

Though unconfirmed, some inhabitants from Elubo who had a telephone chat with DAILY GUIDE blamed the cholera outbreak on pollution of the Tano River by an unnamed mining company prospecting for gold in the area.

From Sam Mark Essien, Takoradi
with additional files from GNA