‘Observe sanitary practices to reduce cholera’

The Eastern Regional Minister, Mr Antwi-Bosiako Sekyere, has called on all citizens to ensure good sanitation practices to help curb the cholera outbreak.

This was contained in a statement read on his behalf at the 28th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Public Health Nurses Group (PUBHENG) at Koforidua.

Mr Antwi-Bosiako commended Public Health Nurses for their hard work in the face of relative shortage of doctors in the region.

The Regional Minister urged the nurses to re-examine their strategies and practices as public health nurses, to enable them to find new ways of overcoming emerging challenges in the delivery of their services.

Manye Awo Kosi Otinor I, the Queen mother of Somanya said she was ready to lead the nurses to champion the campaign for six months maternity leave for working mothers to ensure effective breastfeeding.

She said this would help reduce the death of children under five years and maternal mortality.

The Queen mother pleaded with the government to set up a fund for community nurses in the rural areas to motivate them, since most nurses in some of the rural communities go through challenges in the delivery of their services.

Dr Mrs Gloria Asare Quansah, the Eastern Regional Deputy Director of Health Services said, the government of Ghana is much concerned about maternal mortality, and as part of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), the Government is doing its best to reduce it drastically.

Dr Quansah said most Public Health Nurses are ageing, especially midwives, and called for the training of the youth to take over from them.

She pleaded with the nurses to go back to their old ways of helping the less privileged in the communities, by visiting and educating them to ensure they stay healthy till they deliver.