Out of the 4,954 people screened for elephantiasis in the Wenchi Municipality of the Bono Region, a total of 328 have tested positive for the disease, the Wenchi Municipal Health Directorate has disclosed.
The Wenchi Municipal Health Director, Dr Vera Serwaa Opoku, revealed this to The Ghanaian Times after the 2025 Annual Performance Review meeting on Friday. She said the affected persons were currently receiving treatment as part of measures to contain the outbreak.
Dr Opoku, who is a Research Scientist at the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) of the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, explained that elephantiasis is primarily caused by infection with parasitic, thread-like roundworms.
According to her, the parasites are transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes, which lodge in the lymphatic system, causing damage and severe swelling.
She noted that the treatment being administered includes Ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug, and assured that the Municipal Health Directorate would continue to monitor the situation for the next two years to control the outbreak.
Dr Opoku advised residents to sleep under insecticide-treated nets, eliminate stagnant water, and clear weeds around their homes to prevent mosquito breeding as preventive measures.
The Acting Wenchi Municipal Director of the Ghana Health Service, Mr George Agyemanang, expressed concern about other public health indicators in the municipality.
He disclosed that the area recorded an HIV prevalence rate of 2.5 per cent during the year under review, the third highest in the Bono Region.
Mr Agyemanang further indicated that the municipality recorded an 11 per cent tuberculosis fatality rate, a figure he described as worrying, noting that it exceeds the acceptable benchmark of five per cent under health standards.
He further advised residents, particularly the youth, to adopt healthy sexual behaviours to reduce the risk of HIV infection and urged persons with symptoms of tuberculosis to seek early medical care at health facilities.
The Wenchi Municipal Health Directorate, he underlined, had intensified public education and community sensitisation to address the challenges and improve health outcomes.
The 2025 Annual Performance Review meeting was on the theme: ‘Stakeholders Engagement Efforts in Achieving Universal Coverage.’
FROM DANIEL DZIRASAH, WENCHI
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