Cholera Kills 3 At La Hospital


Dr Kwaku Agyemang-Mensah, Minister of Health
Three persons have died of cholera at the La General Hospital in Accra following an outbreak of the disease in the La, Teshie and Nungua communities about two weeks ago.

According to the hospital, a total of 111 cases have so far been reported.

Speaking in an interview with Citi Fm, the Senior Health Service Administrator of the hospital, Philip Afeti Korto, said the cholera unit of the hospital is currently stretched to its limit.

‘Because of the numbers, now our OPD [Out Patient Department] has been closed to the public to attend to mainly Cholera cases,’ he explained.

Mr Korto indicated that non-cholera cases have been designated to different consulting rooms adding that ‘the OPD was closed due to the contamination from cholera patients.’

The hospital, he said, would undergo fumigation after the season of cholera is over ‘to make it safe for others to use so that people will not come and have infections.’

The Greater Accra Regional Health Directorate a little over a week ago had announced the outbreak of cholera in some parts of the region because of the raining season with 350 cases recorded.

The Deputy Director of Health, Dr John Eleaza, gave out frightening figures about reported cases of the disease in the last three weeks in four out of Greater Accra’s 16 districts.

He mentioned that Accra Metro has recorded 274, Ga West, 14, La Dade-Kotopon Municipal Assembly 58 and Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal District, four cases.

That was over a week ago since at La the cases have jumped from 14 to 111 with three deaths.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoea illness caused by the bacteria Vibrio cholerae that can result in a profound and rapidly progressive dehydration and death.

An untreated person with cholera may produce 10-20 litres of faecal matter a day with fatal results.

 
 

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