HEALTH EXPERTS MEET ON GUINEA WORM ERADICATION (PAGE 40)

HEALTH experts and representatives of donor support agencies in the health sector have completed a two-day national mid-year review meeting on the Guinea Worm Eradication Programme (GWEP) in Tamale.
The participants discussed issues such as intensification of interventions, funding, the push for final eradication with an integrated approach, surveillance, case containment and eradication efforts in the Northern, Volta and Brong Ahafo regions.
The Northern Regional Minister, Alhaji Mustapha Ali Idris, pledged his preparedness to “put pressure on district and metropolitan chief executives to make the eradication of the disease a top priority to give it a final push out of the region”.
He stressed the need for the involvement of traditional rulers and the media in guinea worm eradication efforts, especially during monthly reviews.
The Minister of Health, Major Courage Quashigah (retd) , announced that his outfit had set aside GH¢1.4 million to support efforts at “kicking-out” the guinea worm disease in the country by the middle of 2009.
Currently, statistics indicate that a total of 415 cases were recorded for the first half of this year with the Northern Region alone recording 395 cases, being the highest in the country.
Major Quashigah charged all stakeholders to avoid complacency and ensure a total “interruption of transmission of the disease by the middle of 2009.”
He entreated health officials involved in guinea worm eradication to intensify surveillance of the disease, stressing “it is our duty to look for cases and finish them because our mission is to record no cases whatsoever.”
Major Quashigah reminded the participants that development partners were only assisting the country to eradicate the disease.
“Let us take the lead in solving this problem so that our next meeting would be a celebration of victory over the disease,” he stressed.
The Director General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Elias Sory, noted that the provision of potable water and effective surveillance of the disease were critical to its eradication.