Cholera epidemic: ‘DCEs, Mayors can’t clean your house for you’

The fight against cholera must be a collective one, President John Mahama has said, noting that District, Municipal and Metropolitan Chief Executives and their Assemblies cannot shoulder the burden alone.

“I wish to appeal to Ghanaians that the district assemblies cannot do it alone. The MCEs and the Mayors cannot come and sweep around your house. They cannot come and take your garbage from your house. You must bring it to a point from where they can come and collect it”, the President admonished when he addressed a durbar of chiefs and people at the Odwira festival at Akropong-Akuapem Friday.

Cholera has affected more than 17,000 people and killed at least 150 people in Ghana since it broke out a few months ago.

“This is unacceptable”, Mahama said, adding: “Cholera is a communicable disease that is easily prevented and easily cured and so in this day and age, in this 21st Century, there is no reason why we should be losing our mothers and sisters and brothers and relatives from cholera”.

The diarrhoeal disease festers in insanitary conditions. It is an infection of the small intestine caused by a bacterium. Symptoms include watery diarrhea and vomiting which may result in dehydration. The disease is mainly transmitted by drinking water or eating food that has been contaminated by the faeces of an infected person, including one with no apparent symptoms.