Afram Plains Health Director expresses fear for residents

Mr Robert Kweku Bio, the Director of Health for the Kwahu Afram Plains North, has expressed fear that the area appears so vulnerable that any outbreak of disease could be very disastrous for the residents there, especially those on the Islands.

He said though the District Directorate was working tirelessly to prevent any possible outbreak, residents' lives were greatly at risk.

The Health Director indicated that children, especially the under one and five-year olds, most of whom living on the Islands, were not protected at all and therefore stood the greatest risk of being affected in case of any outbreak of diseases.

Mr Bio who expressed this feeling in an interview with this reporter at Donkorkrom said it was so stressful when staffs bring genuine concerns to be addressed and there are no resources to use in solving them.

According to him, the Directorate lacked many vital resources and logistics, and was as well are faced with numerous challenges that make it difficult for the health officers to operate.

He expressed worry that, due to the very bad nature of roads in the area, almost all the motorbikes used by the health officers to work in hard-to-reach areas had broken down, “a situation which is very worrying to the officers.”

The District Health Director said in 2013 and 2014 respectively, the district recorded a case of yellow fever each, both on the Dwarf and the Didza Islands.

“Yellow fever is a hemorrhagic fever and has similar symptoms as Ebola, and such a case renders the district prone to a possible Ebola outbreak,” he said.

Mr Bio however said he believed there was no way Ebola could occur because, “thanks to the World Vision Ghana and the government of Ghana through the Ghana Health Service, a vigorous Ebola campaign is in the offing in the Kwahu Afram Plains to alert the communities about the disease and to prevent it.”

He appealed to authorities to increase the number of Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE) earmarked for the Afram Plains, saying, two PPE for the whole of that area was not enough considering how vast and populated it is, including the Islands.

Mr Bio also appealed to philanthropists and bodies to come to their aid by donating motorbikes to the District Health Directorate to enable the health officers go about their duties with a bit of ease to save lives, especially of the most vulnerable.