Risk of cleft lip rise in Ghana linked to galamsey

Health experts have warned that Ghana risks having more children being born with cleft lip and palate as heavy metals used in illegal mining have polluted many drinking water sources.

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, Dr Opoku Ware Ampomah, who sounded the warning, explained that substances from galamsey activities had contaminated many water bodies, pointing out that such substances could cause birth defects.

Addressing a news conference organised by Operation Smile Ghana, an international medical charity, in Accra last Thursday to mark Cleft Awareness Week, Dr Ampomah called for the necessary steps to ensure that water bodies and food sources in the country stayed free from such contamination.

“Cleft lips are caused by a number of factors: genetic factors and environmental factors,” Dr Ampomah said.

“Genetic factors are that the baby inherits an abnormal gene. Other environmental factors also contribute to children getting clefts, and these may be due to vitamin deficiency or some medications or toxins that pregnant mothers are exposed to.

 We know that heavy metal contamination or some of the substances that are used in illegal mining activities can cause birth defects,” he said.

The Korle Bu Teaching Hospital CEO, however, added that currently, there were no actual data to show where the cases of cleft lips or palates being recorded were coming from.

But Dr Ampomah stressed that data collection had started which could be ready by 2026 or earlier to help in determining whether there had been a surge in the

abnormality in some of the areas where galamsey was rife. A cleft lip is a physical split or separation of the two sides of the upper lip and appears as a narrow opening or gap in the skin of the upper lip.

This separation often extends beyond the base of the nose and includes the bones of the upper jaw and/or upper gum.

A cleft palate, on the other hand, is a split or opening in the roof of the mouth.

Some children are born with either a cleft of the lip or cleft of the palate or a combination of the two. It is the third most common congenital condition worldwide but the most common facial anomaly.

In Ghana, one in every 1,000 children has the abnormality.

Operation Smile Ghana is the largest provider of cleft surgery in Ghana, and has since its formation in 2011, provided over 2,500 free surgeries on cleft lips and palate for children and adults born with cleft palate.

Globally, it has provided over 220,000 free surgeries across 60 countries since 1982.

Environmental factors

Dr Ampomah mentioned other environmental factors that predispose children to the abnormality to include drug and alcohol use, smoking, illness, malnutrition, infection, and the lack of vitamins B, D and A during pregnancy.

He said children who had the condition experienced difficulty in breathing, speech and eating problems, among other challenges, which, he said, often led to the children becoming malnourished, sometimes leading to death.

He further explained that the abnormality did not allow children to properly suck the breast for milk, while some mothers, seemingly adhering to superstitious beliefs, did everything, including starving them, to get rid of the children.

Indeed, the myths associated with the abnormality include the fact that it was a punishment from God to the mother for committing adultery or a curse.

But Dr Ampomah dispelled those misconceptions, pointing out that cleft lip or palate was only an abnormality that could be surgically corrected in just 45 minutes.

He urged women not to take any medication that had not been prescribed by a medical doctor the moment they became pregnant so that they did not end up ingesting substances that could affect the child.

Awareness week

The acting Country Manager of Operation Smile Ghana, Henry Quist, said the Cleft Awareness Week was aimed at creating awareness of the abnormality, which would involve volunteers talking about the condition in the media.

A clefts surgeon, Dr Edem Anyigba, said the goal of the surgery was to correct the deformity, adding that the earlier they did the surgery, the earlier the child could pick up speech.

A dentist, Dr Adjoa Konadu Apratwum, said children with that abnormality normally reported to hospital with poor oral health hygiene because parents were afraid to put their fingers in their mouth to clean it, adding that with surgery, they were able to correct their problem.

Operation Smile Ghana’s Programmes Manager in charge of Patient Management, Felicia Babanawo, urged families who had children with such conditions to call the charity organisation for assistance to enable them to benefit from the free surgery.