Health Minister to brief Parliament on cholera outbreak

Parliament has directed the Minister of Health, Kwabena Mintah Akandoh, to appear before the House within one week to brief members on the cholera outbreak in the Effutu Municipality and the country as a whole.

The minister’s appearance is also expected to allow him to brief members on the outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis in some parts of the country.

The First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor, gave the directive after the Minority Leader, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, appealed to the House to invite the minister to give a briefing on the cholera outbreak and the measures taken to contain its spread.

The Minority Leader made the appeal after he read a statement on the floor of Parliament yesterday, drawing attention to the worsening cases of cholera outbreak in the Effutu Municipality and requested immediate support to contain its spread.

Deaths  

The Minority Leader said it had been reported that there were 412 cases of the disease in the area, which had killed three persons.

Currently, he said, the affected persons were being treated at the Winneba Municipal Hospital, Winneba Health Centre and the University of Education, Winneba Clinic.

“Mr Speaker, the facilities there are very stressed and most of the cases are coming from coastal areas”.

“The central government must immediately intervene to save lives because the people are suffering,” Mr Afenyo-Markin said.

The Minority Leader called for additional supportive staff to be deployed to Winneba and the Minister of Health to direct other health professionals to support the Municipal Health Directorate to enable it to contain the unfortunate outbreak.