20% of cattle in Upper West suffer from sleeping sickness

Wa, Aug. 26, GNA - A survey conducted by the Tsetse flies Eradication Project under the auspices of the Pan African Tsetse and Trypanosomiasis Eradication Campaign (PATTEC), has revealed that about 22 per cent of cattle in some parts of the Upper West Region suffered from trypanosomiasis, otherwise known as sleeping sickness. However, the disease could not be detected in any of the 21,500 people that were screened during the survey which was undertaken in the Western and Upper West regions of the country between 2006 and 2008. Dr Charles Mahama, Coordinator of the Project, made this known to newsmen at Wa on Tuesday during a forum which was organized to discuss with stakeholders the progress made so far in the implementation of the project.

He allayed the fears of consumers of beef when he stressed that the disease could only be transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected tsetse fly and not by eating the meat of any infected animal. Dr Mahama said the disease in the cattle was often characterised by symptoms such as severe loss of weight, weakness, and abortions, and that its prevalence had led to economic loss to livestock farmers. With financial support from the African Development Bank, he said, all the affected animals would be treated while the basins of the Black Volta, Kulpawn and the Sisili rivers where the flies were prevalent, would be sprayed with special insecticides to eliminate them. Dr Alexis Nangbei-fubah, Upper West Regional Director of Health Services, called on the Ministry of Food and Agriculture to join his outfit to organize integrated programmes to fight all zoonotic diseases, a term used for diseases transmitted from animals to humans, in the region.

Some of these diseases, including anthrax, rabies, tape worm, tuberculosis, and avian flu, are very fatal and all efforts must be made to ensure that they never emerge to endanger the lives of the people, especially farmers, who are more susceptible to their attack, he added. Mr. Thomas Azurago, an official of the Disease Control and Prevention Department at Korle-Bu, said out of 57 flies that were trapped and screened in the Western region during the survey, eight were found to be vectors of the disease.

He said the only sleeping sickness case in recent times was discovered in a baby in the Western region who later died in February this year, but when the mother of the baby was screened she tested negative for the disease. 26 Aug 09