Red Cross arms Central Region against cholera outbreak

 The Ghana Red Cross So­ciety (GRCS) through the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cres­cent Societies have presented various health emergency response relief items to the Central Regional Coordinating Council to tackle the cholera resurgence in the region.

The items included 540 cholera vaccines, 3,000 tablets of chlorine, knapsack engine-powered spraying machines, personal protective equipment, Veronica buckets and hand washing stands.

The items are for onward distribution to health facili­ties to contain the outbreak which began in October 2024, spread to more than 36 districts across five regions – Greater Accra, Central, West­ern, Eastern and Ashanti.

The region also benefited from a healthy volunteers training programme by the Ghana Red Cross Society with 80 out of the 250 trainees from the region.

The volunteers are oper­ating in the Greater Accra, Western, Ashanti and the Central regions.

The Central Region record­ed more than 3,000 suspected cholera cases with 260 con­firmed, four health workers were infected in late 2024 and 19 people died from the disease.

Cholera is a highly fatal disease that spreads through contaminated food and water, leading to severe diarrhoea, dehydration, and, if left un­treated, death.

In severe cases, a healthy individual can succumb within hours due to rapid fluid loss.

Although entirely prevent­able through access to clean water, proper sanitation, and good hygienic practices, chol­era continues to pose a recur­ring public health challenge, particularly in areas with inadequate waste manage­ment and limited healthcare services.

The ongoing outbreak had placed immense strain on health facilities, stretch­ing both medical staff and resources to their limits.

The Red Cross volunteers would operate in three dis­tricts in the region, including Mfantseman, Cape Coast and Komen­da-Edina-Eguafo- Abrem.

Speaking in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Cape Coast, Mr Solomon Gbolo Gayori, Sec­retary General of the GRCS said the interventions were essential relief measures to enhance public health educa­tion drive and containment.

He said the GRCS had been at the forefront of the response, providing sanitation resources and engaging com­munities to curb the spread of the outbreak.

It had implemented multi-faceted interventions in the region through house-to-house campaigns by trained volunteers and promoting hand washing practices.

The volunteers had also made schools and community outreach, with media en­gagements leveraging radio/ TV broadcasts for awareness creation, complemented by distribution of posters and leaflets at markets and public gatherings.—GNA