GHS holds crisis meeting on cholera outbreak

24-02-2011
CHOLERA cases recorded over the last six months in three regions have risen to 1,396, claiming the lives of 34. The regions are the Greater Accra, Central and Eastern.
To bring the outbreak under control, a strategic meeting was held by top officials of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and other stakeholders in Accra yesterday to plot out technical details of a national response to the epidemic.
Health officials have predicted that the incidence of the disease and the death toll could increase, especially with the onset of the rains.
Present at the meeting were the Director-General of the GHS, Dr Elias Sory, and the Director of Public Health, Dr Joseph Amankwah.
Officials from other ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) who formed a national technical co-ordinating committee on the disease, however, failed to attend the meeting.
The officials of stakeholder organisations who were supposed to attend the meeting but failed were from the Ministry of Water Resources, Works and Housing, the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, the Ministry of Information, the National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the Ghana Education Office (GHS).
In his presentation, Dr Emmanuel K. Dzotsi of the Disease Surveillance Department of the GHS said about 21 districts had so far reported cases, adding that “the outbreak is not under control”.
He gave the breakdown as six districts in the Eastern Region, six in the Central Region as well as the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and all the other districts in the Greater Accra Region.
Dr Dzotsi stated that the first case in the current cholera outbreak was recorded in the Central Region in September 2010, adding that so far 18 people had died of the disease in that region.
He said that was followed by the Eastern Region with three deaths and then the Greater Accra Region where 13 deaths had been recorded.
He explained that there were widespread cases and raised the issue of inadequate isolation wards for case management as a challenge.
He also said the possibility of the disease spreading to other regions and districts was high and pointed out that risk factors pertained in areas where there were poor environmental hygiene and inadequate safe water.
Dr Dzotsi called for enhanced diarrhoea surveillance, improved case management, the intensification of public education, community involvement, among other measures.
For his part, the Deputy Director of Public Health at the Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate, Dr Edward Antwi, said the interventions being used by the directorate included press releases, inter-agency meetings, the provision of case management protocols/training of health staff, the supply of logistics for the management of cases and health promotional activities in various media houses.