The Minority in Parliament has described the anthrax disease as an epidemic in waiting.

According to the group, government must give the menace its full attention.

As of Friday, June 2, 2023, 13 cattle and 23 sheep and goats had been confirmed dead in the two communities in the Upper East Region.

Also, 13 suspected human anthrax cases including one death have been reported from Bansi in the Binduri District.

But speaking to journalists in Parliament, the NDC MP for Nabdam, Dr. Mark Kurt Nawaane chastised government for failing to release funds to fight the outbreak.

"What is happening is that even though the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture through their veterinary services and the Local Government Ministry have come in and they have put in some measures, it appears that they are not putting in enough resources to curtail this outbreak. You need to curtail this outbreak and we need to vaccinate the animals. We need to fumigate their stalls or wherever they are living. We need to prevent the movement of animals. All these measures have to be done and it requires resources.

"As I am speaking now, in the Talensi district, the District Assembly itself has spent about six hundred thousand Ghana cedis to purchase eight thousand doses of the vaccine to vaccinate the animals but this is not enough.

"We know that the Common Fund is not coming and I have to say that we don’t have to take this thing for granted. When it gets to the human-to-human transmission, a lot of human beings will get it and they will start transferring from one person to the others then we are in very bad business. It is a very serious situation and we shouldn’t let it get to that stage,” he explained.

Dr. Mark Kurt Nawaane, who is also a member of the Health Committee of Parliament said although the outbreak is in the northern part of the country, people in the southern part are still at risk.

“This outbreak is about the whole region. It is also about the meat supply of the country. I will say that 40 to 50 percent of the supply of animals in Accra, Kumasi, etc are from the northern part and so we should not take it for granted. If in the north the animals are dying, when we don’t take time and we get these animals to the southern sector where when they come, they are just slaughtered and eaten, then it means that we will have a lot of human cases."

The MP, himself a medical doctor, used the platform to advise his kinsmen to put a stop to certain cultural practices which spread the disease even faster.

“During our funerals we usually kill animals as part of our culture and after killing these animals we don’t eat them immediately. We leave it to be lying outside and sometimes we hang it on a tree to be shared with family. Sometimes it can take eight hours and sometimes it takes 24 hours and I believe that this practice should be stopped.

"We have to try and kill the animals under hygienic conditions and we should share it immediately after killing them. And this practice where some people eat raw meat should stop considering the pending epidemic that we have."

Background

The Upper East Regional Public Health Emergency Management Committee has extended the ban on movement, slaughtering, sale and consumption of cattle and small ruminants and their products to the entire region.

The ban which also prevents animals from entering the region became necessary after two more districts recorded cases of the anthrax diseases that broke out in the region a week ago, increasing the number of the affected districts to four.

So far, Bolgatanga Municipal, Talensi, Bawku West and Binduri Districts have recorded cases of the disease which has so far killed one person and infected 13 others.

The disease has also killed nine cattle and 24 sheep and goats in the affected districts.

At a press conference held in Bolgatanga, Mr Stephen Yakubu, the Chairman of the Committee noted that the ban which was initially placed on only districts in the Eastern corridor of the region had been extended to the entire region due to the latest cases in recorded in Bolgatanga Municipal and the Talensi District where the disease killed two cattle on June 7, 2023.

The move, he said, was to protect the lives of people and animals and prevent the outbreak from becoming a national issue.

Mr Yakubu, who is also the Upper East Regional Minister, revealed that the anthrax vaccination had also been extended to cover the entire Region was free of charge.

The Regional Minister directed various state institutions including the Municipal and District Chiefs Executives, Environmental health officers, veterinary officers, the police, the military, the Immigration, food and Drugs Authority and all heads of entry points to the region to ensure the directive.

Mr Yakubu called on the media to avoid creating fear and seek information from the right authorities to better inform the public about the disease to ensure that they availed their animals for vaccination and avoid touching and eating sick and dead animals.

“We, therefore, urge you the press to support to educate the community leadership and members, to report any dead animals to the nearest veterinary officers, health officers, community health volunteers and environmental health officers.

“We also urge you to educate the public that any person that has fever, vomiting, diarrhoea, coughing, headache, skin rashes and convulsions to report immediately to the nearest health facility,” he said.

Anthrax disease is a rare, but serious bacteria and zoonotic illness that is caused by a spore-forming bacterium called bacillus anthraces.

It mainly affects animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, dogs among others but can affect humans through contact or eating an infected animal.

The region recorded its first case this year on June 1, 2023, at Bansi community in Binduri District and Sapeliga, in the Bawku West District where one person was confirmed dead, and 11 others infected after consuming dead cattle.

So far, 1,068 cattle, 757 sheep and 514 goats have been vaccinated by the veterinary services as at midday Wednesday, June 7, 2023.