Source: newsthemegh.com
Asuogyaman District in the Eastern area is projected to experience a surge of the Schistosoma parasite, which is known to cause Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharzia, as a result of the Akosombo Dam Spillage.
Communities along the Volta Lake in the district are endemic for the disease.
Praziquantel, a prescription drug for treating the sickness among the public, has been occasionally administered over the years by the Ghana Health Service and the Volta River Authority.
The parasitic flatworms that cause the disease schistosomiasis can penetrate the skin when people come into touch with contaminated water sources.
Although there is no vaccination for the illness, there is a medicine that can be used to treat it. The sickness is significantly linked to bladder cancer.
When freshwater snails release the parasite’s larvae onto the skin and that person comes into touch with contaminated water, the parasite is transmitted.
When schistosomiasis patients contaminate freshwater sources with feces or urine that contains parasite eggs, the eggs hatch in the water, resulting in further transmission.
As the spillage of the Akosombo Hydroelectric Dam has caused major floods in various communities downstream of the Volta River, potentially accelerating the spread of the disease due to the increased pollution, the prevalence condition in the Asuogyaman district has aroused serious worries.
Thomas Ampem Nyarko, the member of parliament for Asuogyaman, advised residents in flood-affected communities to avoid drinking raw river water or swimming in it to prevent infection with the Schistosoma parasite and other waterborne diseases over the weekend while distributing relief supplies like rice, cooking oil, and bottled water with the support of NDC national chairman Johnson Asiedu Nketia.
Thomas Ampem Nyarko stressed the need of taking this recommendation, given the District Health Directorate’s earlier detection of the Schistosoma parasite in the lake.
“The District Health Directorate announced before the spillage of the Akosombo dam that they found Schistosoma parasite in the lake, so you don’t have to bath in the lake or drink raw water from it. The District Director of Health has told me she’s gone round communities along the lake to speak to the people to boil water they fetch from the lake very well and allow to cool down and filter before using”.
He emphasized the necessity to fully boil water taken from the lake, let it cool, and filter it before use, claiming that the river had become badly polluted owing to the flooding because it had carried trash and human waste, making the water unsafe to drink.
In order to offer the Kokonte Kpedzi Community with safe drinking water, he promised the locals that he would mechanize a borehole there as soon as possible.
A significant number of people, according to estimates from the World Health Organization, will need preventative therapy for schistosomiasis in 2021, with an emphasis on routine, widespread population praziquante treatment.
This is essential for lowering transmission, combined with advancements in potable water, sanitation, and snail control.
78 nations, including Ghana, have recorded schistosomiasis transmission. The prevention and reduction of disease-related morbidity is greatly aided by repeated preventive treatment over a period of years.
Due to the Schistosoma parasite’s presence in the Volta River, there is an urgent need for public health measures to safeguard the safety and well-being of the impacted communities.