Containing the cholera outbreak in Accra

The good news is that there has been no fatality yet. The bad news is that though reported cases are coming down, there is no end in sight for the disease at the moment. It is a shame that the dreadful disease is making a come-back, after years of containment.

Even before the rains and subsequent floods, Accra had recorded a number of cholera cases. The Chronicle agonises over the fact that at a time when this nation is moving forward, and has actually joined the elusive club of Middle Income nations, according to official statistics, cholera should still devastate the land.

We would like to believe that the AMA's sensitisation exercise would be extensive and regular. Most people may know the causes of cholera, but not many may be fully educated on how to avoid it. Many people might also be ignorant about how to prevent it from spreading, in times of an outbreak.

The Chronicle would like to appeal to the Ghana Health Service, to be on standby for similar cases in other parts of the country. We should not wait until the entire society is overwhelmed, before finding ad-hoc measures to curtail the situation.

We would like to believe that education on public health would be intensified on how to avoid the disease, or curtail it. Cholera is a fast killing disease, and should not be allowed to fester at this point in time of our national development.

In moments like this, we appreciate the concern of doctors who decided to return to work after their recent protracted industrial action. Their decision to call of their strike action, obviously, helped to abate a very nasty situation.

Could anybody imagine a situation when cholera had broken out without the services of our medical officers? That is why leading members of the Atta Mills administration, who dared our doctors to resign from public practice in the heat of the industrial action, should bow down their heads in shame.

We hope and pray that it would be possible to find an amicable solution to the problem that pushed our doctors to abandon their Hippocratic Oath. Medical doctors belong to the essential services. That is a fact nobody can run away from.

What this means is that the state has to create the enabling atmosphere for them to work without let or hindrance. The leadership of the Ghana Medical Association should also try and contain the pent-up feelings of members, and thus make it possible to avoid a situation where medical officers in the country would put down their stethoscopes once again.

In the interim, we hope the compulsory arbitration at the National Labour Commission, involving the GMA and the Fair Wages and Salaries Commission, is going well. Let us avoid a situation where the sick were left on their own at the various hospitals and health centres throughout the country.

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