Lymphatic Filariasis popularly known as Elephantiasis is silently destroying lives and causing permanent disability to several homes in Ampataano, one of the fishing communities in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region.
Lymphatic Filariasis commonly known as Elephantiasis is characterized by the thickening of the skin and underling tissues especially in the leg and the male genitals and it is caused and transmitted by Wucheraria Bancrofti. They are small worms that passed from person to parson through the bite of an infective female anopheles mosquito.
In some cases the disease can cause certain body parts such as the scrotum to swell to the size of a basketball which is mostly found among men. This genital enlargement or Elephantiasis of the scrotum cloud only be treated through surgery.
Recently at Ampataano a fishing community in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region, 62 people were diagnosed of living with Elephantiasis among 200 people which turned up for screening when National Service Personnel from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Centre organized a week sensitization programme for the community.
According to the victims, their major challenge is how to access the District Health Center at Agona Nkwanta for their drugs and other treatments. They added that the Community Health Assistants which used to bring them the drugs have also stopped coming to their community for more than a year now. Leaving them at the mercy of NGO’s and philanthropist.
Nana Kessiwaa has been living with the Elephantiasis disease for almost 40 years now. Recounting his ordeal to me, she noted that she chew paracetamol almost every thirty minute just to reduce her pain since the drugs are not forthcoming.
Chief Research Assistant at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Centre, Joseph Okyere has been working on Elephantiasis cases in the western region for ten years said those in the communities along the coast in the western region are at a high risk of contracting the disease.
He advised the residents of Ampataano to sleep in the treated bed net and never forget to keep their surroundings clean.
The National Service Personnel from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Centre however presented bed nets as well as educational materials to the community flocks of Ampataano and gave Ivermectin and Albendazole to the victims of Elephantiasis in the community.
In endemic communities, 10 percent of women can be affected with swollen limbs whiles 50 percent of men can suffer from mutilating genital disease.
Lymphatic Filariasis commonly known as Elephantiasis is characterized by the thickening of the skin and underling tissues especially in the leg and the male genitals and it is caused and transmitted by Wucheraria Bancrofti. They are small worms that passed from person to parson through the bite of an infective female anopheles mosquito.
In some cases the disease can cause certain body parts such as the scrotum to swell to the size of a basketball which is mostly found among men. This genital enlargement or Elephantiasis of the scrotum cloud only be treated through surgery.
Recently at Ampataano a fishing community in the Ahanta West District of the Western Region, 62 people were diagnosed of living with Elephantiasis among 200 people which turned up for screening when National Service Personnel from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Centre organized a week sensitization programme for the community.
According to the victims, their major challenge is how to access the District Health Center at Agona Nkwanta for their drugs and other treatments. They added that the Community Health Assistants which used to bring them the drugs have also stopped coming to their community for more than a year now. Leaving them at the mercy of NGO’s and philanthropist.
Nana Kessiwaa has been living with the Elephantiasis disease for almost 40 years now. Recounting his ordeal to me, she noted that she chew paracetamol almost every thirty minute just to reduce her pain since the drugs are not forthcoming.
Chief Research Assistant at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Centre, Joseph Okyere has been working on Elephantiasis cases in the western region for ten years said those in the communities along the coast in the western region are at a high risk of contracting the disease.
He advised the residents of Ampataano to sleep in the treated bed net and never forget to keep their surroundings clean.
The National Service Personnel from the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research Centre however presented bed nets as well as educational materials to the community flocks of Ampataano and gave Ivermectin and Albendazole to the victims of Elephantiasis in the community.
In endemic communities, 10 percent of women can be affected with swollen limbs whiles 50 percent of men can suffer from mutilating genital disease.
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