The Ghana Health Service (GHS) will soon embark on a fumigation exercise in the Wassa East District of the Western Region following the upsurge of black flies in the area.
The District Director of GHS, Madam Priscilla Amoah, told the Ghana News Agency that over 11,000 of avermectin and 6,000 Albendazole had been distributed to communities that have been worse affected by the black flies invasion.
Some of the beneficiary communities of the drugs included Sekyere-Heiman, Sekyere-Oboase, Essumankrom, Wassa Abrodzi, Atta ne Atta, and Nsutere.
She said the Regional Public Health Division of the GHS had given assurance of more supply of the medicines, to ensure distribution throughout the district.
Madam Amoah said the district health directorate had embarked on an intensive educational drive in schools and communities, on the need for people to wear protective clothing or gears to avoid the bites of black flies.
She said victims of black flies bites can suffer from blindness, because it is one of the long-term effects, especially when nothing is done about it.
Explaining the possible causes of the upsurge of the insects in the area, Madam Amoah said it is their breeding period and, therefore, allayed the fears of residents in the area that the health directorate is prepared to contain the situation.
“We have been administering drugs annually to residents in the area to control any negative effects of the insects,” she stressed.
Asked whether the activities of illegal small-scale mining popularly called galamsey in the Pra River has contributed to the spread of the flies, Madam Amoah noted that when the environment of the insects is disturbed, it can result in an upsurge.
She, therefore, called for proper environmental management to avert future invasion of the flies.
The black flies invasion last week caused social discomfort among the residents, because farmers could not go to farm, while school children were kept indoors, thus affecting academic work in the area.
