SPECIALIST WARNS OF MAJOR OUTBREAK OF CSM ...In Upper West Region (PAGE 31)

Story: Benjamin Xornam Glover

THE Upper East Region is on the verge of a major outbreak of Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis (CSM), a public health specialist has warned.
Dr Nsiire Agana of the Upper East Regional Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS) said the deadly disease, which attacks the nervous system, was imminent in the region after its last outbreak in 1996.
He pointed out that the disease had an eight to 14-year cycle in the region and appealed to all who were in positions to help to support the GHS in the region to curb the situation, should it occur.
Dr Agana made this known when he delivered a paper on the impact of the recent floods in the Upper East Region at an advocacy seminar in Bolgatanga.
The seminar was jointly organised by the GHS, the Upper East Regional Co-ordinating Council and the United Nations Population Fund to assess the various responses to the flooding and humanitarian crises that hit the region recently.
"With the crowding posed by the last floods, we hope assistance will be forthcoming for internally-displaced persons to rebuild their houses quickly before the hot season begins," Dr Agana said.
He said apart from hunger and malnutrition, other active and potential health hazards were recorded as a result of the floods.
Citing the Builsa District as an example, Dr Agana disclosed that 25,000 malaria cases were recorded at the end of August 2007, as against 14,000 recorded in 2006.
"A closer look at the pattern indicated that most of those cases came in the flood month of August," Dr Agana said, adding that although the figures for diarrhoea were not as dramatic as those for malaria, the situation was equally worrying.
On health infrastructure in the region, he disclosed that 36 facilities, mainly Community Health Planning Services compounds, feeding centres and staff accommodation, estimated at GH¢1.5 million, were destroyed by the floods.
Dr Agana said the GHS collaborated with a number of development partners to provide relief items for communities in the region.
He mentioned UNICEF, the UNFPA, the Ministry of Health, the World Food Programme, as well as CENSUDI, a Bolgatanga-based non-governmental organisation, as partners who supported the GHS in diverse ways.
The Upper East Regional Minister, Mr Alhassan Samari, said the response of the government to the flood disaster was very swift, particularly during the early stages when emphasis was on normalising the situation.
He indicated that the government, through NADMO, had provided 6,596 packets of roofing sheets, 4,000 bags of cement, 18,250 pieces of blankets, 13,393 large quantities of rice and 16,250 pieces of mats.
Mr Samari said currently the government’s concentration was on the reconstruction of social infrastructure, such as roads, adding that the reconstruction of the dams which collapsed during the floods would take place before the next rainy season.
He pledged the government's commitment to collaborate with the relevant UN agencies and other humanitarian actors to tackle the situation.
In a speech read on his behalf, the UNFPA Representative in Ghana, Mr Makane Kane, said late last year the organisation supported with the provision of reproductive health kits, essential drugs, equipment and other consumables for flood-hit areas in the region.
He said the UNFPA also provided additional assistance for the training of service providers, advocacy, community and social mobilisation to better inform and engage people and improve their responses and actions at all levels of the community.