Nearly every year, for the past decade, Ghana records endemic cholera outbreak in certain parts of the country. This year, cases were recorded at some coastal areas of Ada district in Greater Accra Region in late October. Just two days ago, cases were reported at Kasoa enclave.
If you consider the mode of transmission or spread of this extremely acute infection, Ghana in 2024 should never have been associated with this public health problem. Majority of Ghanaians may not bother about cholera because everyone knows the outbreak is usually localized in slums and ghettos of the cities or some villages.
Some may also conclude that cholera is a disease for people who are dirty and do not maintain personal and environmental hygiene. Tags like these may result in further marginalization of sections of communities whom without any fault of theirs are left with no choice but to grapple with what I call a shameful health problem at this time of the 2ist century.
Cholera is a shameful public health problem in any nation today because its outbreak is an indictment on the leaders’ failure to provide clean portable water for citizens and poor sewage system.
Cholera bacteria can be found in certain rivers and coastal areas. The infection can also be acquired by eating raw or under-cooked shellfish like shrimps or crabs. But the commonest source of outbreak in communities is the presence of the bacteria in faeces or human poop.
The poop containing the bacteria then finds its way into water source used for household chores such as cooking and drinking in the community. This means that, in simple term, people infected with cholera literally took in particles of poop with the cholera bacteria in it.
Blame our failed system; not the victims of the same
I do not want to blame community members suffering cholera, but rather place the blame squarely on the country’s leaders who fail to make it possible for citizens to have access to decent personalized toilet facilities and clean source of drinking water.
People in other countries who hear of this annual outbreak of cholera may wonder why a country like Ghana will be this poor to have its citizens suffering from such poop sanitary health problem.
The issue of cholera outbreak should never be limited to public education on personal and environmental hygiene because that’s not the root cause of the infection. The root cause is the government’s failure to provide safe environment for its citizens. It’s not the job of communities to provide for themselves good source of drinking water; that’s the job of the government.
It’s the responsibility of the government to provide decent toilet facilities in communities. So, I am not ashamed of citizens who suffer this poop ingesting infection, I am rather ashamed of the country’s leaders who do not care to provide the most basic needs, such as good source of drinking water for citizens.
It’s the governments of Ghana that create the condition resulting in cholera outbreak in deprived communities and I expect our leaders to be ashamed of themselves. And I hope political leaders will seek to solve the problem from the root-cause because they are mandated with the nation’s resources to do so and not the ordinary citizens.
