AMA Public Health intensifies education on cholera

The Accra Metropolitan Public Health Department has intensified public education on cleanliness to ensure a cholera-free environment during this raining season.

A special taskforce had, therefore, been formed comprising the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA), Ghana Police Service, Ghana Education Service, Community Health Nurses, the National Commission for Civic Education, Ghana Health Service, National Disaster Management Organisation, and environmental health officers to help with the programme.

Dr Simpson Anim Boateng, the Director in-charge of Public Health, AMA, made this known in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

He said the ongoing cholera education campaign which was being carried out, particularly for food vendors at flood prone areas, had helped in ensuring hygienic and safe cooked foods.

Dr Boateng said the AMA was determined to eliminate cholera and other communicable diseases adding that from April 2015 till now Accra had recorded only one cholera case.

“We do not want to experience the 2014 outbreak where over 70 people lost their lives, hence the need to intensify education in cholera pandemic areas such as Chorkor, Gbegbeyise, Kawokudi and Sabon Zongo,” he said.

He said the dredging of the Korle Lagoon and Odor River had also contributed towards solving the flooding problem.

Dr Boateng said in view of the Assembly’s commitment to ensuring good sanitation in the city, all households had been directed to register with accredited AMA waste management companies.

He appealed to judges at the Sanitation and Motor courts to facilitate the speedy trial of sanitation offenders to serve as a deterrent.

Dr Boateng said students of the Public Health School of the Korle Bu Teaching Hospital were assisting in the house-to-house inspection to ensure that people did the right thing to minimise the outbreak of diseases.