Cholera outbreak: Keep your environment clean ahead of the rains – Health Minister urges

The Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandor, is alerting the general populace of the need to keep their environments clean ahead of the raining season which comences in few weeks.

The Ministers’ call follows the outbreak of cholera and meningitis in the country which has claimed many lives, especially the cholera outbreak.

The Minister, during a media engagement on February 18 noted that the rains will set in soon and so there was need for all to keep their spaces clean to avert an escalation of the prevailing disease outbreaks in the country.

Already, the level of insanitary conditions fueling the surge in cholera cases has been of major concern. Communities lack access to potable drinking water while open defecation persists in most of the coastal communities recording the cases.

Although the severity of cases is on the decline, this means an onset of the rains has a high tendency to escalate the outbreak and the health authorities are concerned.

“I can say that the situation is a under control. I can confidently say that the situation is absolutely under control. Our health professionals are on top of the issues. The good news is that when we went to the grounds for firsthand information, even the suspected cases are drastically dropping in some of the areas. For the past three weeks, we’ve not recorded any death in some areas. But we are yet to see the rains set in. So it is very important that everybody, every Ghanaian, come on board, so that we can clean our environment,” he urged.

Mr Akandoh emphasised that, “The experts have said that cholera is a water and sanitation disease and so it’s important we do the needful and keep the environments clean at all time.”

Since the outbreak of the cholera in parts of the country, in august last year, a total of 6,145 suspected cases have been reported with 719 being the total confirmed cases.

49 lives have been claimed while the affected regions remain Greater Accra, Central, Eastern, Western, and Ashanti. The Efutu and Agona West districts remain the disease hot spots.

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