Empower schoolchildren in fight against cholera

Of the 1,092 recorded cases of cholera in the Tema metropolis from August to October this year, 10 people are reported to have died from the disease.

Close to 90 per cent of the registered cases came from the Tema Manhean community.

The Medical Superintendent in charge of the Manhean Health Centre, Dr Ama Quansah, disclosed this at a ceremony held in Tema to observe Global Hand Washing Day.

The programme was held on the theme: "Choose hand washing, Choose health," and it attracted scores of schoolchildren and market women.

According to Dr Quansah, the general unsanitary conditions in the Manhean community were contributing to the outbreak of the disease, which had worsened over the period under review.

"The disease, which originally broke out seasonally, has now taken on an all-year dimension due to severe unsanitary conditions in Manhean," she said.

She noted that while hand washing and personal hygiene were key to holding the disease at bay, and investment in periodic training programmes for residents were vital.

Change agents

She said children, as early adopters of innovations, could play key roles in the campaign against the disease if they were guided in that regard.

"The metropolitan assembly and its partners working to eradicate the disease could institute a ambassadorial sanitation initiative in schools in the Manhean community to help fight the disease," Dr Quansah emphasised.

Hand washing

The Regional Manager of the Community Water and Sanitation Agency (CWSA), Ms Theodora Adomako,  said washing of hands with soap under running water must become an integral part of everyday living. 

She said diarrhoea was now a major contributor to child mortality nationwide.

In her words, good hygienic practices such as washing of hands with soap dislodged germs and prevented diseases.

"The high incidence of over 20,279 cholera cases recorded in nine regions nationwide could have been avoided if serious attention was paid to handwashing with soap," Ms Adomako said.

She has, therefore, advocated that communities where cholera cases are endemic should be provided with the necessary logistics for hand washing as a means of keeping the disease at bay.