Government allocates 500 million cedis for guinea worm treatment

Sang (N/R), Dec. 16, GNA - The government has allocated 500 million cedis to the Ministry of Health for free treatment of guinea worm patients in the country.

Persons infested with the disease should now feel free to attend health institutions for treatment to help eradicate the disease, according to Dr Seidu Korkor, National Programme Manager, Guinea Worm Eradication Programme.

He said this at a meeting with Miss Lamisi Mbillah, Ghana's 2005 Beauty Queen and community members at Sang in the Yendi District.

Miss Mbillah was on a four-day working tour of guinea worm endemic communities in the Northern Region to share words of encouragement with the people to help stem the spread of the disease.

Dr Korkor said the government had asked health workers to consider the guinea worm disease as a medical emergency and as such more filters and abates had been to help eradicate the disease.
He said 10 Guinea Worm Containment Centres would be built in the Northern Region, especially at guinea worm endemic districts for the treatment of the disease.

He said guinea worm patients who reported at the centres for treatment would take away home a mosquito net and a bed sheet, adding: "All these are incentives put in place by the government and its development partnership to encourage infested persons to attend the centres".

Dr Korkor called on community leaders to support government's efforts by evoking traditional powers on their people to discourage them from indiscriminate infestation of water sources.

Miss Mbillah cautioned members of the communities not let the free gift of a mosquito net and bed sheet encourage them to infest themselves with the disease, since the impact of the disease was greater than a mere mosquito net or a bed sheet.

She urged people in the communities to take greater interest in the health of their children many of who were suffering from the guinea worm disease.

She called on the people to practise guidelines given them by health workers to ensure the rapid eradication of the disease by next year.
Mr Jim Niquette, Resident Technical Adviser of the Carter Centre in Tamale, announced that UNICEF was providing two billion cedis for the provision of potable water for the Sang community, which was one of the endemic communities in the district.

He observed that for sometime now the people had not been obeying methods and practices taught them by health workers to eradicate the disease and called on them to change their attitudes for the better.

GNA