Cholera: Ghana’s Ebola
Last year at the time where Ebola was ravaging three West African countries, Ghana was also battling with a cholera scourge which claimed more than 200 lives.
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It was a chaotic scene at almost all the public health facilities in, especially, the capital city Accra, as well as in all the other regional hospitals and district health facilities as the disease swept through the country like wild fire from June 2014 to the end of the year and beyond.
Within a spate of nine months, cholera wreaked havoc in the country living many homes wailing, and health facilities crying for more support in terms of infrastructures and medical consumables.
With more than 20,000 cases and 120 deaths recorded in Accra alone, the various health centres were overstretched. The Greater Accra Region which hosts the capital Accra recorded the highest cases and deaths.
Nationwide, a total of 28,178 cases resulting in 218 deaths were recorded from 130 out of the 270 districts in all the 10 regions of the country.
Hospital finances and public health facilities were over stretched because the treatment of cholera in these facilities was and is still free in Ghana.
Drinking water contaminated with someone’s faeces is the simplest definition for cholera.
A disease characterised by vomiting and watery stool, cholera can lead to death within a few hours.
Despite its deadly nature, referral facilities, especially, in Accra are yet to be adequately resourced.
A visit to three of the centres showed that the region will be plunged into further chaos should the deadly disease rear its ugly head again.
At one of the busiest clinics in the capital, the Ridge Out Patient Department, formerly Adabraka Polyclinic, the situation was pathetic as the tent which served as an isolation ward for cholera patients was in shambles.
Built as a temporary shed in 2012, the platform of the 25-bed referral centre on which the tent was erected has now become a death trap as the wood easily caves in with the least pressure.
According to the acting Head of Department at the Ridge Hospital OPD, Dr Abdul Razaq Quao, they have moved the treatment centre to the main hospital’s OPD. Although he says that is not the best decision as it can lead to cross contamination, it is still the best they can do.
The Deputy Director of Health Services at the Ridge OPD, Mrs Marian Obeng-Addae, in reaction also said “should an outbreak occur this year, it would not be easy to handle”.
One of the hospitals that incurred much of the wrath of the cholera disease last year is the La General Hospital. Through its internally generated funds (IGF), the hospital built a ten-bed cholera isolation centre last year.
Although woefully inadequate, it is a relief from the death trap that it previously had.
The Municipal Director of Health, Dr Vera Opata, said “the tent collapsed by itself two years ago.”
Presently, she said last year’s cholera outbreak left the hospital in a financially tight situation as it had to use its own funds to treat cases.
To date, Dr Opata said the hospital’s financial situation had become worse as people had refused to seek medical treatment from them due to the fear of being contaminated after the hospital was overwhelmed with cases and it had to convert every available space as treatment areas for cholera last year.
Dr Opata is advocating for better hygiene among people to help stop the cycle of cholera in the country.
Set in the serene ambiance of the Achimota Forest, the Achimota Hospital, just like the other cholera referral centres, has had to abandon its tent and rely on other wards where there is available space.
The termite-infested tent has given in to the weather as the wood is rotten.
According to the Medical Superintendent of the Hospital, Dr Mildred Kumasah, the hospital was in the process of dismantling the tent as it had outlived its usefulness.
Ironically, a newly built but yet to be inaugurated structure stands right in front of the old cholera centre, but cannot be used. Built by the Member of Parliament
for the area, Mrs Elizabeth Sackey, the structure is to serve as an isolation unit for the hospital but it is yet to be handed over to its management.
With the onset of this year’s rain and to help avert a possible cholera outbreak again, the Greater Accra Regional Director of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Linda Vanotoo, has made a passionate appeal to the private sector to support the health service to build cholera tents for the six cholera isolation centres in the region so that the situation can be handled better in the event of an outbreak this year .
According to her, the situation was pathetic at the Achimota Hospital, the La General Hospital, the Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly Hospital, the Adabraka Polyclinic, Maamobi Polyclinic and the Ashaiman Hospital.
The commode beds, which are specially designed for the management of cholera patients, in those centres, she said, were all broken and there was the need to replace them.
She said the region would be found wanting in the event of any outbreak of cholera this year.
She was of the view that the government alone could not shoulder the responsibility and, therefore, appealed to all to help in resourcing those facilities.
She is therefore calling for support from corporate Ghana, individuals and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and faith-based organisations new isolation tents and specialised beds can be procured for the effective treatment of patients.
Unless help comes from the private sector, any outbreak of cholera can be disastrous in the country.
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A Daily Graphic publication in collaboration with Ouestaf News and with support from Osiwa.