Health alert: CSM prevalent in dry season

Mr. Edward Saka, Superintendent of Tema Port Health has called on the public to inoculate against cerebrum spinal meningitis (CSM) as it is prevalent in the dry season.

Making the call in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Tema, he said the Unit has enough vaccines in stock for CSM, yellow fever and hepatitis B and urged the public to avail themselves of the opportunity at an affordable cost.

He said the Port Health Unit in 2007, recorded a total of 897 inoculations against CSM, 2,673 for Yellow Fever while Hepatitis B attracted 358 as against 324, 2,710 and 117 respectively in 2006.

Mr. Saka stated that, CSM is prevalent in the dry season, while hepatitis B which affects the liver is gradually gaining grounds with people, saying it was better to inoculate for protection rather than to wait and get affected which involves much cost and suffering.

The Health Superintendent explained that the inoculation against yellow fever was high because it is a World Health Organisation (WHO) requirement which compels travellers going outside the country to have, while the others are optional; however, it is advantageous to be protected against them as both hepatitis and CSM are frightening.

Concerning consumables, the Health Superintendent said his outfit has since the beginning of the year destroyed large quantities of unwholesome food items worth billions of cedis to prevent them from being sneaked onto the local market to be sold to unsuspecting consumers.

The items that were in a total of 42 big containers were expired flour, fresh potatoes, fresh fish, rice, bottled wine, and turkey wings which were destroyed under the supervision of personnel of the Customs Excise and Preventive Service (CEPS) Police Service and the National Security at the Kpone refuse dump.

He attributed the unwholesomeness of the items to delay in clearance of goods and urged importers to speed up with the clearance process.
Mr Saka said the Unit has procured a Nissan Pick-UP at the cost of 21,500 Ghana cedis from its internally generated funds to facilitate the checking of cargoes, crew members of vessels that call at the port to ensure their health conditions before disembarking from the vessels so they do not transfer diseases to others, if any.

Source: GNA