Centre For Food And Drug Policy (FoDruP)

(Food and Drug Policy think-tank)

The Ritual of Cholera outbreak is here with us again. As usual, we are all doing the talking, no concrete steps to stem the tide against this simple preventable disease. Sometimes, it is shocking why this country still grapple with such basic health issues such as cholera. The citizens and state institutions suffer from what can be referred to as chronic reactionary syndrome. We are never proactive in anything. We just wind around the problem.

Much as we can, to a large extent, hold the citizens responsible for not conforming to basic health practices, the result of which we see in cholera outbreak, our state institutions have largely failed us. 

The Metropolitan/Municipal/District Assemblies, Ministry of Health through Ghana Health Services, the Food and Drug Authority and the Pharmacy Council with the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana have not done enough in handling the Cholera outbreak.

Already about some eight hundred persons (and still counting) have so far been affected with fifteen established death which could have been avoided should punitive measures been employed.

The MMDAs even though are putting down policies to curb the menace yet it has become a yearly routine activity. We believe enough measures are not implemented to prevent the ritual Cholera menace. It has been identified that the implementation of policies has not been effective enough to save lives. The choked gutters, refuse dumps and puddles are still found in many communities across the country.

The Ministry of Health and the Ghana Health Services have not pulled enough strength through educating the public about Cholera and its preventive measures. It is interesting to note that these educational/ sensitisation programs only come to light when there is an outbreak with or without loss of lives. What then do we do all year round in curbing such challenges? In recent times the Ministry is focused on Ebola such that cholera is pushed to the back burner. While we admit that the Ministry does, through the GHS, some kind of education, we believe that very important stakeholders are left out. One such important stakeholder is the Pharmaceutical Institutions. We urge the Ministry of Health/ GHS to seriously involve Pharmacies and Chemical shops in their programs.

These facilities have become the very first point of contact when it comes to primary healthcare Delivery in Ghana. They need to be seen in the nation’s Public health planning programs. FoDruP throws a challenge to the MoH/GHS to use the Pharmacies / Chemical Shops for dissemination of Public Health Information and mini-centres for point of first care. These facilities need to be recognized as a point of healthcare delivery instead of just a point of sales or distribution (medicines, cosmetics and other sundries). This responsibility first lies on the MoH/ GHS.

The Food and Drugs Authority, another important state institution in this regard, may be doing less in sensitising the public on food safety and proper hygiene, issuance of licenses to food vending outlets with poor management culture. We challenge the FDA task force to be all out to ensure that  proper hygienic culture is maintained and healthy food stuffs are sold to the public. We ask the FDA to tell the nation what they have done so far and the way forward. The FDA should be able to act to restore public confidence in them. The manner in which the outfit handle issues of such merit or demonstrate its level of preparedness leaves nuch to be desired. We, as a group, are advocating for periodic and stringent regulatory procedures to measure outcomes.

The Chemical Selling Outlets, the Pharmacies and many point of Pharmaceutical care deliveries are not appropriately sensitised to provide first aid and if possible refer patients suspected of Cholera. This is worrying since the first point of call could be these outlets. Availability of the requisite medications is also a challenge to the course of fighting the epidemic as availability issues have been identified as one of the main stream challenges. The Pharmacy Council should sensitise its members / clients as to be alert and ready for the challenge. We urge also the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) to put management of communicable diseases and its related programs as one of the agenda for its Annual General Meetings (AGM).

We recommend that citizenry  demand results from all institutions involved to arrest the situation at hand to prevent future occurrences so as not to make cholera an annual celebration.