Afram Plains cry for health resources

Mr Robert Kwaku Bio, Kwawu Aframs Plains North, District Director of Health, has expressed fears about the vulnerability of the district to epidemics.

The Health Director indicated that, children, especially under one and five-years, most of whom live on the Islands, are at the greatest risk of infection.

Mr Bio, who made this known in an interview with Ghana News Agency at Donkorkrom said in the Eastern Region, expressed worry that, due to the very bad nature of roads in the area, almost all the motorbikes used by the health officers for outreach programmes had broken down.

He said in 2013 and 2014 the district recorded cases of yellow fever at Dwarf and Didza Islands.

“Yellow fever is a hemorrhagic fever and has similar symptoms like Ebola,” he said.

Mr Bio expressed appreciation to World Vision Ghana, an NGO and government for launching a vigorous Ebola campaign in the Kwahu Afram Plains to alert the communities about the disease and how to prevent it.

He appealed to authorities to increase the number of Personnel Protective Equipment (PPE) earmarked for the Afram Plains, adding: “Two PPE for the whole of the area is not enough considering how vast and populated it is, including the Islands.

Mr Bio also appealed to philanthropists and other bodies to come to the aid of the directorate by donating motorbikes, to enable the health officers go about their duties to save lives, especially the most vulnerable on the Islands.