Dikoman Chief appeals to gov’t to arrest bilharzia

Nana Twerefour Tim IV, Chief of Dikoman, has appealed to government to help arrest bilharzia at Mpaemu, in the Kwahu South District of the Eastern Region, to help improve the health of the people.

He said his people drank from the Afram River, which is the source of bilharzia, with other attendant health problems, such as painful urination with blood and itching skin.

Nana Tim IV, who was speaking to the Ghana News Agency in Accra on Tuesday, however, commended the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) for providing a bore hole in the Community, in efforts to alleviate the suffering of the people.

He recounted that their ancestors were resettled at Mpaemu, close to the Volta River Authority, following the construction of the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam in the 1960s.

Nana Tim said their present location was on the leeward side of a mountain, therefore, it hardly rained in Mpaemu, thus contributing to their economic hardships.

He said because of the lack of rains, the people had to resort to irrigation farming to grow vegetables, and in the process of watering their crops with the river water, they ended up contracting bilharzia.

Nana Tim said in the past, government used to ensure that the river was fumigated to kill the intermediate host of the bilharzia, but the practice had been discontinued.

He said farmers in the area had to use the barter trading system in their transaction, by exchanging their vegetables for fish and then exchanging the fish for cereals and root and tuber crops, from other farming communities within the Afram Plains area.

Nana Tim IV also appealed to non-governmental organizations to emulate DANIDA and go to their rescue.

He said the road network linking Mpaemu to Mpraeso, the District Capital, was in a very deplorable state, and appealed to government to reconstruct it to facilitate easy movement of people and goods.

According to the World Health Organisation, bilharzia or Schistosomiasis, is a parasitic disease caused by trematode flatworms of the genus Schistosoma.

It says larval forms of the parasites, which are released by freshwater snails, penetrate the skin of people in the water.

In the body, the medical experts say, the larvae develop into adult schistosomes, which live in the blood vessels. The females release eggs, some of which are passed out of the body in the urine or faeces. Others are trapped in body tissues, causing an immune reaction.

In urinary schistosomiasis, there is progressive damage to the bladder, ureters and kidneys while in intestinal schistosomiasis, there is progressive enlargement of the liver and spleen, intestinal damage, and hypertension of the abdominal blood vessels.

The World Health body says control of schistosomiasis is based on drug treatment, snail control, improved sanitation and health education.