The Assembly in collaboration with the District Health Directorate and other stakeholders, have intensified their sensitization exercise in schools, among organized groups and communities in a bid to reduce its impact in the area.

The dire situation of the district came to light in an address by the District Chief Executive (DCE), Adane Ankomah, when the Assembly took its turn at the second phase of a Town Hall Meeting organized by the Ministry of Information in collaboration with the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development, to afford citizens the opportunity to interact with key stakeholders to deepen the country’s governance process.

He disclosed that the district has a total of 22 health facilities comprising 11 CHPS compounds, 3 clinics, 6 health centres and one private hospital to provide health services for the entire population, a situation he described as worrying.

He said 107,241 patients reported at facilities in the first three quarters of the year with malaria cases, upper respiratory infections, rheumatism and diarrhea cases being the topmost among health incidents.

He subsequently commended the government, National Malaria Control Programme and the National TB Control Programme for installing the first ever ultra-modern X-ray equipment in the area to improve healthcare in the district.

On the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), he commended the authorities for increasing their membership from 41,151 to 51,837 as at November 2017, as well as establishing satellite offices in Goka and Duadaso.

Mr. Ankomah also highlighted government’s social intervention programmes such as Free SHS, Planting for Foods and Jobs, School Feeding Programme, Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), One District One Factory among others, and urged residents to take advantage of the interventions for economic transformation of the area.

He added that other areas that would receive attention from the government included education, water, health, energy and road sectors, and assured that all inherited projects from the previous NDC government would be completed.

Paul Desmond Tutu, the Presiding Member of the Assembly in his address, appealed for peace and collaboration between the Assembly and stakeholders to attract more investors for development.

He lamented the poor road network in the district, and tasked government to pay special attention to the situation to open up the area as a major cashew producing district.

Desmond Tutu challenged assemblies to consider the interest of the area above all other considerations, to ensure growth and development.

Students die from Meningitis, others hospitalized

The disease appears to be rearing its ugly head in some parts of the country, following the death of a student at Damongo SHS in the Northern Region, and two others at the Bawku Secondary Technical School in the Upper East Region, and the Koforidua Secondary Technic School in the Eastern Region respectively.

Several students are also on admission at various hospitals showing symptoms of the disease.

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Mashoud Kombat/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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The two deceased were second-year science students of the Bawku Senior High School, and the Bawku Senior High Technical School.

[contextly_sidebar id=”ejUaPR4ny62y269gFQWx6vOeUzX6aQ3e”]The Headmasters of both schools; Mr Bismark-Simon Kpuli and Mr Bukari Abdulai confirmed the incident in an interview at Bawku.

Mr. Kpuli, Headmaster for the Bawku Senior High School, told the GNA that Master Awini Moro, reported to the School’s Health Centre and was given first aid, but later had to be rushed to the Bawku Presbyterian Hospital where he was detained, but died later of suspected CSM.

The Headmasters said the death of their students were a blow to them and that immediate measures had been put in place to prevent such occurrences, saying frequent health talks would be organized to educate the students on the symptoms of the disease.

They asked the students to sleep in open places where there was good circulation of air, so as to forestall further spread of the disease.

Mr Kpuli expressed concern that the disease had caused so much fear in the students that they could not focus on their studies, but instead troop to health facilities in panic whenever they had a bit of headache, either imagined or real.

He appealed to the Upper East Regional and the Bawku Municipal Health Directorates to see it as a matter of urgency and embark on a mass vaccination exercise in schools in the area in order to avoid an outbreak.

Speaking to the GNA in Bolgatanga to confirm the situation in Bawku, Dr. Razak Dokurugu, Upper East Regional Deputy Director of Health Services in charge of Clinical Care, said there had been sporadic reported cases of suspected CSM in the Eastern Corridor, covering Bawku, Garu and Pusiga Districts, but laboratory tests had not been carried out to identify the particular strain of the causative agent.

He said the Region had not started mass vaccination yet, but that would be done when the disease poses a threat to the public.

CSM usually occurs in March and April when maximum temperature is recorded at over 40 degrees Celsius.

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Source: GNA

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