The Upper East Regional Health Directorate of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), says the Region has not recorded any cholera cases.

Dr Freeman Samson Samani, the Deputy Director of Public Health, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency in Bolgatanga, said that even though there was no reported case, the Directorate had intensified education on the disease across the Region.

He said the disease was faecal-oral and explained that one gets infected when pathogens from an infected person’s faeces were transmitted to another person’s mouth.

“So mostly, it is about water and sanitation,” the Deputy Director of Public Health said.

Dr Samani called on residents in the Region to stop open defecation, keep the environment clean and wash their hands properly with soap under running water, especially after using the toilet.

“For children, whether they use the loo or not, you wash their hands as often as possible, especially before they eat,” he advised.

According to a release signed by Dr Patrick Kuma-Aboagye, the Director-General (DG) of the GHS, the Greater Accra Region recorded nine cases as of October 11 in Ada East and West Districts.

In a subsequent update, the DG said there were 43 confirmed cholera cases and two deaths in the two Districts and another outbreak in the Awutu Senya East District of the Central Region.

He told journalists that five people were confirmed dead while 30 others were reportedly on admission at the Kasoa Polyclinic and the Mother and Child Hospital.

Cholera is an acute diarrhoeal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated by bacterium vibrio cholerae, which can kill within hours if left untreated, and symptoms include sudden diarrhoea with fluid loss.

Nausea and vomiting occur in the early stages of cholera and could last for hours, with dehydration within hours after cholera symptoms, which range from mild to severe with irritability, dry mouth, fatigue, extreme thirst and sunken eyes among others.