From left: Dr Victor Bampoe, Dr Badu Sarkodie and Dr Owen Kaluwa, WHO Country Representative, at the conference
The Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central Region has recorded an outbreak of cholera, with 157 cases being reported as at November 1, 2016.
However, there have been no deaths recorded from the outbreak of the severe acute bacterial intestinal disease in the metropolis due to early reporting to health facilities.
Addressing the press after a delegation from the Ministry of Health (MoH) and Ghana Health Service (GHS) visited the metropolis, Dr Badu Sarkodie, Director of the Public Health Division of the GHS, said the outbreak started on October 21, 2016 when a patient came to the University of Cape Coast Hospital with acute watery diarrhoea.
He said the following day, two more patients presented to Cape Coast Teaching Hospital with similar symptoms. “Stool samples were obtained from these patients tested positive for Vibrio cholera using the cholera rapid diagnostic test kit,” he explained.
According to Dr Sarkodie, the Cape Coast Regional Health Directorate notified the Disease Surveillance Department of the GHS and the MoH of the occurrence of the cholera outbreak on October 24, 2016.
Response Activities
Giving the measures put in place to contain the disease outbreak, Dr Sarkodie stated that the Public Health Emergency Management Committees in the region have been reactivated, as well as the deployment of the rapid response teams from regional and national levels to support the metropolis.
“Required logistics and funding support for management of the outbreak have been sent to the regional health directorate to support the metropolis,” he said.
The public health director further mentioned that the National Technical Coordinating Committee had recommended intensive public education, enhanced surveillance, proper case management, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) intervention for rapid containment of the disease.
Dr Sarkodie, however, stated that the population in Cape Coast Metropolis continuous to be at risk of contracting cholera because they continue to drink unsafe/contaminated water, consume unhygienically prepared or contaminated food and practise open defecation.
He, thus, urged all to practise good personal hygiene like drinking safe water, cooking food well and eating hot meals, washing hands with soap before eating and after using the latrines and safe burial of victims.
The Central Region is the second region to record an incidence of cholera this year after the Greater Accra Region recorded one confirmed cholera case. However, it is the first to reach an outbreak level OF close to 200 cases in two weeks.
By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri