60 Cholera Cases Recorded In Ga West

About 60 cases of cholera have been recorded in the Ga West Municipality, the Municipal Director of Health Services, Dr Doris Arhin, has said. She said since the first case was recorded on July 9, 2014, the Amasaman District Hospital had recorded close to 45 cases, with the rest coming from other health facilities in the municipality. "We also receive referral cases from other hospitals, especially private health facilities that do not have the resources to take care of affected patients," she said. Dr Arhin was speaking to the Daily Graphic during a visit to the hospital to find out how it was managing cholera cases in the municipality. �Over the past weekend alone, the hospital recorded 11 cases and we are still counting," he said. She said one person died barely five minutes after he was admitted, saying the rest had been treated and discharged. Managing the outbreak Dr Arhin said in 2011 when the first cholera outbreak occurred, the government distributed tents to various hospitals within the municipality to isolate infected persons. However, she said with the current outbreak, the hospital was yet to receive such support from the government. The hospital had been compelled by the current health challenge to, within two weeks, put up a temporary wooden structure with the capacity to take six beds to accommodate patients, she said. Dr Arhin said the move was to make sure that patients who were receiving treatment for other illnesses did not get infected with cholera. She said relatives who sent cholera-infected persons to the hospital were given some form of treatment and medication to stop the chain of infection. Advice to the public As part of efforts to curb the disease, Dr Arhin said public health officers in the municipality were already educating residents on how to prevent the disease. She said it was important that infected persons visited the hospital as soon as they felt the symptoms of the disease in order to get treatment early. She also advised that the public should clean their surroundings, wash their hands with soap under running water regularly and eat warm and properly cooked food all the time. Dr Arhin denied media reports that the hospital did not have facilities to admit patients with cholera.