Women bear effects of open defecation

A GNA feature by Fatima Anafu-Astanga
Bolgatanga, April 26, GNA - Women form majority of caregivers who attend to sick relatives admitted in health facilities, with most of them unaware of their susceptibility to picking infections in the course of handling patients.

The number of people trouping in to the wards to visit sick relatives at the Bolgatanga Hospital for instance, as visiting time approaches and a cursory look at the numbers flocking into wards and consulting rooms is a true reflection of women's unflinching tasks.

At the wards and waiting areas of health facilities, women sit by their relatives, waiting to attend to them when they require food or when they need their linen changed.

Women, above all challenges are also faced with caring for sick relatives suffering from environmental health and sanitation related problems.

Mmapika Nsoh, a trader, like any other woman was so glued to her husband, Ayine Nsoh's bedside at the Bolgatanga Regional Hospital after he was brought in with severe diarrhoea and vomiting from the Bongo District.

For three days she remained very close to the ward and at the bedside of her husband with hope of a speedy recovery.

The communities from which Mmapika and her husband come from practice open defecation because there are no household toilets and no public latrines cited in the locality.

Meanwhile the only dam- the Vea dam, where the community members bath and wash their clothes, is located 1.5 kilometers away from the community.

Mmapika's husband had earlier in the day bought 'Koose', (bean cakes) from the market, which he ate after work on the farm. However, upon getting home he started vomiting and had diarrhea, which was later confirmed at the hospital to be cholera.

Reports from the Environmental Health and Sanitation Office in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, indicate that in 2014, out of 10 communities that were checked on Open Defecation in the Bongo District, only three of them passed the test.

This implies they had no faecal matter in the open and at least 80 per cent of the households had latrines and hand washing facilities. Those communities are, Ayugte, Azoosidana and Ayopia.

Meanwhile the lack of household latrines gives rise to exposure to environmental related ailments due to open defecation. Harmful effects of human faeces left in the open fields, bushes or drains generate millions of viruses, bacteria and parasites.

When houseflies fly between the faecal matter and food including fruits, they contaminate them and such foods when eaten cause illnesses that could be fatal sometimes.

Therefore the impact of open defecation and non-compliance to hygienic practices has consequent influence on the daily lives of people.

For the three days Mmapika did not work, as her stay at the hospital kept her away from her business. She did not earn any income and her little daughter aged four who was left in the care of other young siblings depended on wayside cooked food whilst their mother was away.

Two days earlier at a ward in a health centre in the Bawku West District, a 49 years old woman who was rushed there from home died shortly on arrival.

Information gathered indicated she died of severe diarrhea, which resulted from the care she provided her son who was a primary case patient of cholera.

In the case of Mmapika and other women, providing care to sick relatives has both social and economic impact as her work- trading, the main source of livelihood for the family was affected.

Mmapika like the other caregivers absented herself from her routine trading trips to market centres and places of work.

She said that did not only impact on her productive time in earning some money for the family but also as a result of visiting and caring for her husband at the hospital she left her children at the mercy of neighbours.

According to her the financial loss was enormous since in every three days in each of the markets days she lost profits she could have made from sales.

She said she trades in the Bongo, Bolgatanga or Sumbrungu, and during those market days she sold not less than three bags of millet or corn with profits of not less than GH₵ 50 to take home, out of which she made savings of GH₵ 20 on each market day.

Worldwide, cholera affects 3-5 million people and causes 100,000-130,000 deaths a year since 2010. According to health experts, due to severe dehydration, fatality rates are high when untreated, especially among children and infants.

Meanwhile, death could occur in otherwise healthy adults within hours and those who recover usually have long-term immunity against re-infection.

Cholera epidemic has been ongoing for more than 20 years in Ghana due to inadequate sanitation and water treatment systems.

In Ghana, Dr Alberta Britwum-Nyarko, a public health specialist in a recent report indicated that in 2014 Greater Accra had the highest recorded cases of 20,197 cholera cases, Central Region recorded 3,868, Eastern Region, 1,876 whilst Brong Ahafo recorded 1,056 cases.

The Western Region recorded 429, Volta 651, and Ashanti, 287.

Dr Nyarko noted that In 2015, the country recorded 694 cases of cholera with 11 deaths with case fatality rate (CFR) at 1.6 per.

He said the risk factors as over-populated communities such as slums and refugee camps characterised by: poor sanitation, unsafe drinking water, increased person to person transmission, poor personal hygiene, poor food hygiene, floods leading to contamination of domestic water sources and broken down water and waste disposal systems.

By all standards, cost of work time lost by women in accompanying and visiting relatives and the number of cholera cases registered in the nation's hospitals during the last epidemic, leaves much to be desired.

Women making similar efforts as Mmapika lose a lot of family income during the number of days they travel to a health facilities either accompanying relatives, and even the number of days spent visiting a health facility per person per year.

The implication of care of children and family due to lack of appropriate feeding of children as a result of mothers' absence from home, as they attend to sick relations at hospitals, affect good nutrition of children at home .

The impact on the national purse due to people's inability to pay their taxes because they are unable to go about their work also affects the daily gross national income per capita per day for the country.

The significance of household toilets in communities and the hygienic practices therefore helps to lessen the daily heavy loads of work on women and reduce tendency of people suffering from illnesses such as cholera, typhoid and worm infestation among others.

Where households are equipped with latrines, women and girls would also benefit and reduce walking distances and difficulties to look for extreme corners and under tree shrubs off the community to attend nature's call.

GNA

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