Activities of illegal miners in the Amansie West District of Ashanti region is said to be impacting negatively on the health and economic status of residents in the area.Health officials suspect the growing number of respiratory tract infections in the area could be as a result of the inhaling of chemicals used by galamsey operators or dust emanating from such activities.Respiratory tract infection, with symptoms such as cough, sore throat, fever and headache, among others, is the second common disease reported daily at the Saint Martin’s Catholic Hospital at Agroyesum after malaria.Galamsey activities are notably high at Manso Nsiana, Agroyesum, Daatano and other surrounding towns in the Amansie West District, which is one of the less developed districts in Ghana.Over 9,530 cases were recorded between 2009 and 2012 alone.Medical Superintendent, Dr. Ofori Amanfo, says the situation puts pressure on health personnel.Speaking in an interview with Nhyira News, he said majority of those affected are the youth who are galamsey operators and farmers.The advent of Galamsey in the area has seen majority of residents who were predominantly farmers abandoned their farms, especially the youth, to do Galamsey.They see Galamsey as most lucrative venture where they can enrich themselves fast and easily.“With the influx of galamsey, I think people get more money from doing galamsey than going to farm so most of the youth, you find them at the galamsey site instead of the farming areas,” Dr. Ofori revealed.But Dr. Ofori warns the best way to stop more people from further getting infected is to stop galamsey completely.“They (the youth) do a lot of galamsey activities in the district and that involves digging. And they inhale the dust and we don’t even know what (the chemical) they use to extract the gold. So the citizens or the people here will inhale all those things and that can affect their respiratory tract”.