Typhoid cases continue to rise at Jato Akura and its surrounding farming communities in the Kintampo North Municipality of the Bono East Region due to a lack of potable water.
Health authorities in the area say that over the last eight months, the Kintampo Municipal Hospital has recorded 14 cases of typhoid.
The General Surgeon at the Kintampo Municipal Hospital, Dr. Sarah Azindow, who made this revelation, is appealing to the government to provide the community with portable drinking water as typhoid cases in the community continue to rise.
Dr. Azindow, who doubles as the clinical coordinator of the hospital, said the hospital records cases of typhoid diseases every single day.
She explained that some of the cases of typhoid perforation require surgeries.
“Over the last eight months, the hospital has recorded 14 cases of typhoid perforation, 12 of which were cases from the Jato Akura community.” Dr. Azindow disclosed this in an interview.
Residents of Jato Akura, Tahiru Akura, Mahama Akura, Alhassan Akura, and Chiranda in the Kintampo North Municipality have been battling with water crises, especially during dry seasons.
Residents of these communities rely on dugouts as their only sources of water.
The dugouts dry up in the dry seasons, causing an acute water shortage, while in the rainy seasons, rainwater fills them up with filth, including animal and human excreta.
Residents, after drinking from these dugouts, develop minor typhoid diseases, which sometimes develop into typhoid perforations.
In June, 13-year-old Aisha Wahabu from Jato Akura was diagnosed with typhoid perforation, a condition that necessitated six different operations to save her life.
Aisha remained on admission at the hospital for two months before she was finally discharged.
Dr. Azindow said the situation is becoming more worrying as the hospital begins to receive some typhoid cases from the Kintampo township.
While urging residents of the community to drink boiled water, she also appealed to the government to provide portable water for residents of Jato Akura and its sister communities to save them from typhoid and other water-borne diseases.
The Assemblyman of Chiranda Electoral Area, Raymond Nantia, said he lost his stepmother through typhoid perforation.
He explained that they go through severe pains to get water.
3 news.com