Tuesday, 11th February, 2025
Hon Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin
Effutu
I thank you, Mr Speaker. I appreciate this treasured space to make this urgent Statement regarding the outbreak of cholera in the Effutu Municipality.
I have already, in a letter dated, today, with reference MIL/005 conveyed the sentiments of the Effutu Municipal Health Directorate to the Minister for Health calling for an urgent attention on this matter.
Mr Speaker, it has been reported that 412 cases of outbreak of cholera in Efutu Municipality has taken three lives. Currently, we have the affected people in the Winneba Municipal Hospital, the Winneba Health Centre, and the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) Clinic. The facilities there are very stressed, and most of these cases are coming from the shores of Winneba, I mean the inshore naa.
Currently, according to the Municipal Health Director, they need operational expenses including funds for fuel, sanitation efforts, procurement of urgent supplies, essential medical supplies and treatment kits, as well as other logistical support for education and public awareness.
The Municipal Assembly has no funds to support their programme to help educate, and help our people who are suffering in various health facilities.
Mr Speaker, on my part as a Member of Parliament, I have made available a pick-up truck to enable the health directorate to continue with its education, and I have supported them with some funds for their activities.
Mr Speaker, this is not enough. The central Government must immediately intervene to save lives; the people are suffering. We also need additional supporting staff to be deployed to Winneba. The Minister for Health must direct other health professionals to support the directorate to enable them to contain this unfortunate outbreak.
Mr Speaker, without more, I would want to rest my case, and call on the Minister for Health that within a week, he should come to this House to brief this House on efforts made thus far.
I thank you very much.
Hon George Kweku Ricketts-Hagan
Cape Coast South
Mr Speaker, I thank you very much, and I thank the Hon Minority Leader for making this important Statement, which is not only affecting Effutu, but actually, the whole of the Central Region, at the moment. I know that a lot of effort is being made. It is cholera we are talking about, which is obviously affecting the people of Central Region.
Mr Speaker, some of the issues actually have to do with sanitation, which not only the Minister for Health, but also, I expect that the Minister who is responsible for sanitation now, would also move in there and find out exactly what is going on. I know the doctors are working around the clock, but as cholera is, it is usually ahead of their attempt to curb it.
I am very happy that my Hon Brother has made this Statement, which is seriously affecting the Central Region. Last week, we talked about meningitis here, and I know a lot is being done about that. But now, the Central Region is actually suffering from this cholera outbreak, and I hope that all the institutions in the health sector move down there to make sure that the issue is actually brought under control.
I thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity
Hon Patrick Yaw Boamah
Okaikwei Central
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity to make these brief comments on the Statement ably made by the Minority Leader.
Mr Speaker, this is a serious public health issue; a very serious one as such.
In 2014, cholera took the lives of more than 200 of our citizens. So, if this issue is cropping up again, then we require of the Minister for Health to appear before the House to brief the good people of this country on the steps that he is taking to curb the rise of this disease.
Mr Speaker, secondly, Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM) is also on the increase and is claiming some lives. I believe that it is very important for the Minister for Health to appear before the House before the end of this week to brief and update Ghanaians on the steps being taken by Government on this very important matter. I thank you very much.
Hon Sebastian Ngmenenso Sandaare
Daffiama/Bussie/Issa
Mr Speaker, thank you very much for the opportunity to contribute to the Statement on cholera outbreak ably made by the Minority Leader.
Mr Speaker, it is absolutely unacceptable for any district, community and in fact, any country to record a case of cholera. Even one case of cholera is considered an epidemic because of its importance and severity.
If we recall, this cholera outbreak started around the Ada area somewhere in October 2024, and the inability of us as a country and our health system to contain one case, can lead to the spread of that one case to other parts of the country. This is the reason today, the outbreak is serious in Effutu. The outbreak is not just at Effutu; records show that about more than a half of the districts in Central Region have been recording cholera cases.
Mr Speaker, we have to do something. Our health system must be able to respond to this outbreak and contain the disease. It has the potential to spread to all the regions in this country. Mr Speaker, the professor who taught my colleagues and me microbiology, said, “a case of cholera simply means that you have eaten somebody's faeces” and that is a summary of it. It means a person has eaten somebody's faecal matter either through the water that they drink or the food they eat. They have just eaten somebody's faecal matter.
That is why I started by saying it is unacceptable, because one does not only measure the economic status or how developed a country is by economic indicators. These epidemic outbreaks such as cholera and typhoid, all go to measure whether indeed we are a developed country or we are beginning to develop.
Mr Speaker, in conclusion, I support the maker of the Statement that the Ministry of Health must come to educate us, or show us how well they are fighting this outbreak of cholera and other epidemics.
Mr Speaker, thank you very much.
Hon Frank Annoh-Dompreh
Nsawam/Adoagyiri
Mr Speaker, I want to commend my Leader for the show of leadership to the people of Effutu and for the prompt response. However, just a few observations.
First of all, if we recall, last week, Dr Sandaare raised a matter on Cerebrospinal Meningitis (CSM). I also recollect that when the Majority Chief Whip presented the Business Statement, I nudged him on the outbreak of cholera—unverified reports had it that it is spreading within about five regions. So, I drew his attention to it.
Mr Speaker, earlier, per your wisdom, you gave some consequential directives that the Ghana Health Service (GHS) should attend upon the House. I am told that they were billed to appear tomorrow. May I humbly suggest to you or request of you, if you may, vary your earlier orders so that instead of the GHS appearing—because as at that time, we had to fall on GHS because the Minister for Health had not been sworn in. Now, the Minister has been sworn in, and the proper thing to do is to get him to appear before the House; it has to be as soon as possible. Tomorrow would not be out of place.
I also heard that the Minister for Local Government, Chieftaincy and Religious Affairs could also be added since the index of sanitation concerns are also in there and cannot be glossed over. It has to be as soon as possible. I could not have agreed more with Dr Sandaare when he said that it is totally unacceptable in this time and age. Some time back, the concern had been the availability of vaccines; I think now it is not the case.
But if it is, we need to hear from the sector Minister and then this House can position itself in terms of action lines, going forward. But it is a sad story. At this time and age, this should not be happening to our country.
Mr Speaker, I hope you would accede to my call that Mr Akandoh could be programmed for tomorrow, or we could notify him today, and then the next day, he could appear duly to speak to this concern.
Mr Speaker, it is sad that at this time and age, cholera is claiming lives and CSM, as I am told, has already claimed 14 lives as at last week. Let me commend the GHS though. We are told there is a distribution of free vaccines and the people there as we do know—I think is good that people there are not made to pay for the vaccines, because there is a high level of poverty there. If it could be sustained, it would go a long way to curb the menace.
Mr Speaker, I thank you and I commend our Leader for the show of leadership. Particularly, we need the Minister for Health on this matter.
Hon Gizella Akushika Tetteh-Agbotui
Awutu Senya West
Mr Speaker, thank you. I also commend the maker of the brief Statement, Osahen Afenyo-Makin, for this.
Mr Speaker, somewhere last year, in November 2024, my Constituency, Awutu Senya West, also had a cholera outbreak. Now, one thing I observed was the rapid response of the district health system. They quickly formed a platform called Cholera Rapid Response Team and put me on it as well, as a Member of Parliament (MP).
So, I watched it every day. They had Zoom meetings and PowerPoint presentations to see the traceability and others. I was also privy to that and it kept me informed. I also likewise told my communicators that when they visit the community radio stations or information centres, they should tell the people that there is cholera outbreak.
When I was campaigning too, I used to tell them about the outbreak of cholera whenever I was done talking. Sometimes people have to be reminded, else, they may not take it that seriously. I just tell them to try and eat hot food, and that is the simplest solution to this.
I have somebody in Winneba now, a friend, who called me and said, “Madam, I am in the hospital.” Then I asked him what the issue was because sometimes, we refer cases from Awutu Senya West to Winneba. He said he had cholera. The first question I asked him was how come, and what he ate? He said, “I had a millet drink”, and that brought to mind the issue of food safety.
So, much as I support what Dr Sandaare said, there are a lot of food vendors— we all have them. I would plead with my Colleagues to let us also be proactive and let us educate the food vendors. It could be the water they use to make their food.
It could be the environment or even just something small that they have been doing routinely, but this time, they got caught.
My plea is that Hon Colleagues over here should use their community radios and information centres. We lost three of t my constituents, a child and two adults, which was unfortunate.
But at least, I would commend the district health team and the director for taking some steps, and kept me involved and informed. So, I also added my weight to it. I had to give them fuel and a few other things that they needed.
So, I would plead with every one here, especially those of us from the Central Region where this cholera epidemic is happening — it can actually be anywhere at all because of the mode of transmission. My plea to Hon Members is to get to community radios and information centres and tell our citizens what is happening.
Even if the Hon Ministers come here to give a run-down of what exactly they are doing, we also have to see in our backyards and help our district health directorates to get certain things sorted. It may be some logistics, which we can help with or otherwise. Time is of essence, because people’s lives are at stake here.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker.
Hon Laadi Ayii Ayamba
Pusiga
Thank you, Mr Speaker, for the opportunity. The Minority should not worry; it would come to their Side. Mr Speaker, I rise to contribute to the Statement ably made by the Hon Minority Leader.
Mr Speaker, the issue of cholera has always come to our attention, but there are so many questions and activities that need to be undertaken. There is the need for education, especially in the various communities. Those who would have to undertake this education are the health persons. How would they get there? They need a lot of support.
Just as my Colleague, Mrs Tetteh- Agbotui has just mentioned, sometimes, it is not their fault that they do not go to the communities. Means of transport is the first thing, then when there is a means of transport, there is a lack of fuel. We need to give them that support.
We also need to look at the budget of the Ministry of Health so that at least, the contingency would be in such a way that they would be able to come out and support the health sector to handle issues that come up without any questioning. In the villages, someone would say, it is said that, it is a matter of eating fecal matter, and would say that “How would I do that, am I a fool?”. No, there are so many things that lead to it: insects, flies, and many people who do not even think of washing their hands properly before they go and touch food.
I was so sad somewhere last week when a woman in the Upper West Region was being interviewed. She had lost two of her children in just a matter of two or three hours, and her other child was lying there and one would see that that was a young woman. She had no way of even going to the hospital. According to her narration, it was a problem to even get money to go to the hospital. The intervention of the health directors who quickly went to her aid at the hospital was helpful.
However, we as a nation need to continue to give education on the water that is being used for the planting of vegetables like lettuce and others. I watched another documentary where fecal and chemical-filled water was used to water plants. Now, we ask for salad and most of these, especially lettuce, is not treated. The salad is not properly washed, but we do not see that there is a problem because we think we are eating the right thing since we need vegetables.
But what it would have gone through to come to that very restaurant, and to our tables, is what we do not know. We need to educate our people.
I would also plead with us all that we should not think that since it is in the Central Region, it cannot get to the Upper East Region. Our surroundings, the cleaning of our environment, when we use the washrooms and for that matter, let me just say the toilets, and we get back
Mr Speaker, let us teach the children how to wash their hands themselves. For them, when they go to the toilet and there is nobody around, they may even begin eating food without washing their hands, and it leads to a lot.
Mr Speaker, I really appreciate the maker of the Statement and I hope that we are able to curtail this menace and that it should not escalate to other communities and regions.
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker for the opportunity.
Hon Rockson-Nelson Etse Kwami Dafeamekpor
South Dayi
Mr Speaker, I agree with you. Let me wind up on this by saying that indeed, the cholera outbreak began last year.
In October, five regions were announced to have suffered this: Western, Central, Greater Accra and the rest. Between 9th and 29th December, over 35 persons had died and over 4,800 cases had been reported. So, it is important that I join my Hon Minority Chief Whip in saying that, in getting the Hon Minister for Health to address the House on meningitis and other matters, he should also prepare to address the House on the cholera outbreak, and the steps the Ministry has been taking to deal with the matter since last year. This is so that the outbreaks, which has entered this year, can be curtailed.
With these words, I thank you for the opportunity.
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