Buruli ulcer endemic in 30 communities in Dormaa Municipality – Disease Control Officer

Buruli ulcer is endemic in the Dormaa Municipality of the Bono Region, Mr Daniel Kwame Owusu-Mensah, the Dormaa Municipal Disease Control Officer, has said.

He said the Municipality had recorded more than 60 cases in 30 endemic communities in the area since 2010 with many of the affected people having various deformities.

Mr Owusu-Mensah appealed for collective efforts among all stakeholders to bring the situation under control.

The Municipal Disease Control Officer said though Buruli ulcer was common among children, the municipality’s situation was different with the adult population being infected.

Speaking with the Ghana News Agency on the sidelines of a training of some health workers on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) at Dormaa-Ahenkro, Mr Owusu-Mensah said the mode of transmission of Buruli Ulcer remained unknown.

He, however, said the disease was common among farmers farming around water bodies and people engaged in sand winning in the municipality.

The MIHOSO International Foundation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), organised the day’s training to empower the 22 health workers to easily identify, treat and manage NTDs in the Municipality as part of a project it is implementing, covering more than 68 communities in the Municipality.

Similar training was organised for five community volunteers to support the health workers.

The Foundation, a human rights and social development centred organisation, is partnering with Basic Need Ghana, another NGO, to implement the two-year project that would enhance the quality of life of vulnerable and affected people in the area.

Titled “Building Civil Society Coalition to Advocate an Integrated Approach to Control Skin-NTDs and Enhance the Quality of Life of Vulnerable and Affected People in Ghana,” the project sought to contribute towards prevention, control and elimination of the NTD’s infection, ameliorating the mental health and psychosocial impact of debilitating the disease and social stigma.

Mr Owusu-Mensah said Buruli ulcer had deformed many of the affected people in the municipality because they failed to report and seek early treatment and medication.

He advised the people to avoid self-medication and report abnormalities in their body system to health facilities for attention.

He said elephantiasis and yaws were also common, saying 24 cases of the former and three cases of the latter had been recorded in the municipality since 2016.

Mr Thomas Benarkuu, the Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Operations, MIHOSO, said the two-year project implementation would contribute to progress towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and skin health for all.

It would enhance health and well-being, eliminate discrimination and exclusion, deepen human rights, and improve participation and productivity.

Under the project implementation, Mr Benarkuu said self-help peer support groups of people with skin-NTDs would be established to promote self-care and for peer emotional support to members and other affected persons and develop and widely disseminate materials on skin-NTDs to create public awareness in the municipality.

He called for support from the project implementing communities to help identify and support affected people to access medication.

Mr Stephen Nyarko Ameyaw, the Dormaa Municipal Director of Health, commended the project implementers and their partners and gave the assurance that the Directorate would also support the project to achieve desirable outcomes.

“Good health is wealth and there is the need for us as health professionals to be abreast with changing trends in the health sector.

“We should not leave the NTDs and chase other diseases because NTDs have a huge burden on the economic condition of the nation and we need to give the NTDs equal attention,” Mr Ameyaw stated.