A cross section of market women and food venders at the Ho market

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The exponential increase in cholera cases in the Volta Region is sending shivers down the spine of bachelors, spinsters and other residents in Ho and Aflao who usually resort to patronising the services of food vendors.

Currently, five persons are confirmed dead while 201 cases have been reported in the region as at last Tuesday, August 26, 2014, according to figures from the Disease Surveillance Unit of the Regional Health Directorate.

This represents an increase of 100 percent in just a week.

Health officials therefore fear that these numbers may increase due to poor sanitary conditions in most communities in the region.

The urban areas in the Volta Region are gradually being taken over by non- residents due to transfers and operations of various companies and organisations.

Most of these persons are usually unmarried and hence depend on food vendors, restaurants and other public sources for food.

One of them, Joseph Crenstil of the Ghana Revenue Authority noted that ?if simple cholera has reached Volta Region then we are dead oh.?

He referred to the devastating effect of cholera in Accra, the national capital, and hoped that better management, education and concerted adherence to good personal hygiene could stall the spread.

Meanwhile, the Rotary Club of Ho has held a sensitisation forum on cholera at the Ho Central Market to educate and empower market women, traders and food vendors in the municipality.

The forum, which is first in a series of activities, was aimed at empowering participants to become health ambassadors who practise and preach cleanliness and ensure food supplied to the public is wholesome.

It was on the theme: ?End Cholera Now? and was sponsored by Royal Hospital with support from the Regional Health Directorate and the National Commission on Civic Education (NCCE). The President of the Rotary Club of Ho, Rockson Kwesi Dogbegah, said the rapid increase of cholera cases necessitated the forum.

He also called on health officers, refuse collectors and other stakeholders to step up their operations to stop cholera in the region.

In the Nkwanta South of the region, cases have risen from 41 to 67 with three deaths while Ho-West had recorded 12 cases, Ketu-North, 10 cases and Ho, two cases.

From Fred Duodu, Ho ([email protected])

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