Fact Check: Sanitation Minister's claim that no cholera has been recorded is false
The sanitation minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah stated that since President Nana Akufo-Addo was sworn into office, Ghana has not recorded a single case of cholera.
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According to her government under her watch has increased direct access to potable water to all Ghanaians.
Speaking during the approval of the 2019 budget performance report of the Ministry for Sanitation and Water Resources, show stated that due to the increased access to water, there will be no dysentery or cholera on any Ghanaian henceforth.
Source: UGC
In this fact-check report, as to whether or not the claim is true, it will be verified whether Ghana has no recorded cholera cases between 2017 and 2020 as claimed by the Minister.
Even though the cases of Cholera recorded are not as high as was being recorded earlier, since Akufo-Addo assumed office from January 2017 and October 2020 just a handful of cases has been recorded .
The following numbers shows that the figures are contrary to the zero statistics as revealed by the Sanitation minister.
Statistics from the Ghana Health Service and the Ministry of Health has shown that between January 2017 and October 2020, three cases have been recorded in the Volta and Central regions.
At Cape Coast Metropolis in the Central region, one cholera case was recoorded in September 2017.
Also in the Volta region, two confirmed cholera cases were recorded at the Ketu South Municipal Hospital on October 17, 2018 in travelers who were in transit from Nigeria to Kumasi in Ashanti Region.
According a report filed by the GhanaFact, the information was found after studying 110 Ghana Weekly Epidemiological Reports on issues of public health in the country.
The acting Director of Public Health at the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Asiedu Bekoe confirmed to GhanaFact that between 2017 and 2018, 3 cases were recorded.
Meanwhile, when the GhanaFact contacted the Sanitation Minister, she defended her comments, saying: “I picked the facts from Ghana Health portal and it is incontrovertible.”
Cholera is an acute enteric infection caused by the ingestion of bacterium Vibrio cholerae present in faecally contaminated water or food. Cholera has been primarily linked to insufficient access to safe water, proper disposal of waste and poor hand hygiene.
The first cholera case reported in Ghana was in 1970. Since then, in 1998 to 2013, 55,782 cases were recorded with 1,095 deaths recorded.
In 2014, 28, 975 cases were recorded with 243 deaths. 2015 saw a reduction in the recoded cases as th Morbidity stood at 618 with 5 mortality. 2016 on the other hand saw a massive reduction in the cases with no death recorded from the cholera infection. 150 people were infected in 2017.
However, year after year it seems people become more aware of their health causing the disease to decrease dramatically.
Per the data and facts presented, it is clear to say that the claims by the health minister of a zero case rate in Cholera infections since January 2017 to dare is false.
YEN.com.gh earlier reported that the Sanitation Minister, Cecilia Abena Dapaah's, claims that the President's vision of making Accra the cleanest city in Africa is false.
According to her, the vision of the president of making Accra the cleanest city has been achieved by 85%.
In her grading of the government's efforts to make Accra the cleanest city she said, “I will give it 85 percent because at the end of the day you saw the 100 percent we did during the lock down."
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Source: YEN.com.gh
