Dormaa-Ahenkro (B/A), May 11, GNA - Records available at the Dormaa Municipal Health Directorate indicated that the Municipality was endemic with incidence of Buruli Ulcer. The records showed that between August 2010 and April 2011, health facilities and community-based surveillance volunteers detected 49 suspected cases of the disease out of which 35 cases had been confirmed by the Noguchi Memorial Research Centre. Mr Jones Anim, Municipal Disease Control Officer disclosed during a presentation on the state of the disease in the Municipality during a two-day training workshop for health workers and media practitioners at Dormaa-Ahenkro

The workshop organised jointly by the Ghana Health Service (GHS) and MAP, an international non-governmental organisation (NGO) was designed to sharpen surveillance systems to ensure that Buruli ulcer cases were detected early and managed effectively. Participants were taken through symptoms, characteristics and management methods required to handle the disease efficiently. Mr Kabiru Mohammed Abass, a National Buruli Ulcer Facilitator, explained that the disease was caused by Mycobacterium Ulcerans but its mode of spread was still unknown to scientists. He said the disease had always been identified around water bodies beginning as a module or ulcer on the skin and later spreading as chronic but painless sore sometimes resulting in permanent disability. Mr Abass charged the health workers to adopt culturally friendly technique and reassurance to enable them to get potential Buruli ulcer patients to the nearest health centres for early treatment. He urged the media to educate the public on the symptoms of the devastating disease.

Speaking on wounds and their management, the Municipal Health Director Madam Florence Iddrisah said: 93Much of the work on Buruli ulcer patients depends on the health workers who primarily are expected to educate people in their catchment areas to desist from practices that have the potential to predispose them to such diseases." She urged health workers to advice patients not to try self medication including the application of traditional medicine. Madam Iddrisah said 73 per cent of all reported Buruli ulcer cases tried traditional medication before reporting to hospital. 11 May 11