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Come to the hospital before resorting to spiritual help; Cholera patients urged

By Myjoyonline.com|Samuel E.Bruce
General News Come to the hospital before resorting to spiritual help; Cholera patients urged
AUG 27, 2014 LISTEN

Administrator of the Swedru government hospital, Omar Nurudeen, is calling on cholera patients to come to the hospital for treatment before resorting to spiritual help.

Speaking to Joy News' Richard Kojo Nyarko, Mr. Nurudeen explained that patients often come to the hospital in a worse state after resorting to several means of spiritual help.

He noted that people often attached spiritual connotations to ailments making them resort to spiritual forms of treatment.

It is when these efforts fail that they focus their attention on getting treatment at the hospital.

“Ideally cholera patients ought not to die when they are in the hospital. They try their own medication if that doesn't work they move to a religious leader for prayers or for some kind of medication when that one fails that is when they come to the hospital,” he complained.

The cholera epidemic has claimed lives of some 57 people with over 6,000 cases recorded in Greater Accra alone, since its outbreak in June.

As the disease takes its toll, there has been formidable strategic reforms put in place to curb the epidemic, one of which includes directives imposed by Metropolitan Municipal and District Assemblies(MMDA's) to enforce sanitation bye-laws and prosecute people and institutions who flout them.

But attitudes like open beach defecation and personal unhygienic conditions poses the main challenge towards tackling the epidemic despite several calls for the practice to be avoided.

The Swedru government hospital in the Central Region, Monday, recorded 111 cases of cholera with one death recorded.

Recently, government  implemented  a free cholera treatment policy which will enable cholera patients to access free medical healthcare at government health facilities nationwide.

 

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