PPP urges decisiveness in control of epidemics

The Progressive People’s Party (PPP) has asked the government to show decisiveness and be pragmatic in controlling the outbreak of diseases in the country.

The party held that instead of implementing ad hoc measures each time there was an epidemic,  the government must use a more aggressive approach and desist from over-reliance on one method at a time to combat epidemics such as malaria and cholera.

Addressing a news conference in Accra to outline the PPP’s policy on health and the eradication of preventable disease on Wednesday, Mr Felix William Ograh, its National Treasurer, said the government must first exhibit a great sense of urgency towards the prevention and further spread of the cholera epidemic.

Solution

“Today, the President of the Republic has to virtually plead with people to keep their environments clean, given the overwhelming cholera toll,” he said.

Mr Ograh said the populist approach adopted by the government was not the solution to the problem, saying, “We cannot champion ad hoc measures in solving deep-rooted problems.”

He added that the PPP policy intervention to solve the public health menace was the reintroduction of the Town Council system in order to enforce bye-laws to make citizens’ involvement part of the solution to sanitation problems.

The devastating impact of the perennial cholera outbreak, he said, required urgent attention, “else it could heighten existing poverty levels and adversely affect Ghana’s gains towards the various Millennium Development Goals.” 

Mr Ograh said PPP was of the view that battling with preventable illnesses such as cholera and malaria, which have increased at out-patient departments of health institutions 57 years after Ghana’s independence, was “shameful and unacceptable.

“Both cholera and malaria have become the fastest killer diseases and also a huge drain on the public purse; this is disgraceful to the country’s image”.

He noted that weak leadership, coupled with the lack of a sense of urgency in addressing issues that directly impacted on human survival, inadequate public education on preventable diseases, the lackadaisical approach to handling the public health menace and lack of law enforcement to empower relevant bodies to execute their mandate, needed urgent appraisal.

Preventive

Mr Ograh said the PPP’s health policy hinged on preventive rather than curative health and focused on ensuring better healthcare and cleaner environment.

The policy would also restore the state’s responsibility for a clean and healthy environment, through enhanced budgetary allocation to the mandated public institutions, the enactment of appropriate legislation, monitoring performance and enforcing the laws.

Mr Ograh said the party would support the empowerment of agencies and institutions mandated to maintain clean and healthy environment, proper waste management system, provision of good drinking water and good planning of town and cities.

He mentioned other areas of attention as improved water supply, recycling of solid waste for energy production to meet the country’s demand and also maintaining up-to-date databases, as well as ensuring effective and sustainable supervision and sustenance of relevant advocacy programmes.