Mr. William Tuttmern, Manager, Brong-Ahafo Regional Chapter of Pharmacy Council of Ghana, has advised chemical sellers to refer cases beyond them to health facilities without delay to save lives.

Mr. Tuttmern said this at a day’s workshop organised by the Chapter for about 60 Licensed Chemical Sellers from the Nkoranza South Municipal and Nkoranza North District Assemblies.

The event was to educate them on the effective ways of managing diarrhea cases among children and topics discussed included, “Basic concepts relating to diarrhoea”, “Types of diarrhoea”, “Management of diarrhoea”, “The introduction of Zinc in support of Oral Rehydration Salt (ORS)” towards the treatment of diarrhoea and signs of severe dehydration.

Mr. Tuttmern said the workshop was part of a national programme arranged by the Council to offer training and counselling services to Chemical Sellers in managing diseases in their communities.

He said the World Health Organisation (WHO) had recommended the use of Zinc in addition to ORS in managing diarrhoea since Zinc has shown to be tolerable in children because it boosted the immune system of those affected with diarrhoea.

He commended the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for providing logistic support to the Council towards the organisation of training workshops for members of the Council across the country to move Ghana forward health-wise.

Mr. Samuel Duut, the Resource Person and a member of the Council, said there were three types of diarrhoea cases which are “Acute diarrhoea”, “Persistent diarrhoea” and “Dysentery”.

He said while the acute diarrhoea occurred within 14 days, the persistent also happened more than 14 days, adding with dysentery diarrhoea, blood stains were detected in the affected person’s faeces.

Mr. Dutt urged nursing mothers whose children contracted diarrhoea to feed them continuously with balanced diet to replace lost fluids in them.

Mr. Mark Nortey, another Resource Person, said signs of severe dehydration among children include “unconsciousness, sunken eyes and refusal to suck breast-milk or drink water”.

He said if the skin of a diarrhoea affected child should go back slowly after being pinched, it meant the child has severe dehydration and needed to be rushed to a health facility for immediate attention.

Mr. David Kofi Adu, Chairman of the Nkoranza branch of Ghana Licensed Chemical Sellers Association, praised the Council for organizing training programmes to keep them abreast with current trends in managing diseases in their communities.