Begoro (E/R), Sept. 2, GNA - The Fanteakwa District Director of Health Services, Dr Frederick Kwame Ofosu, has charged the Environmental Health Department of the Ghana Health Services (GHS) to intensify its activities to help improve sanitation in the district. Making the call at a mid-year District Performance Review meeting of the GHS at Begoro on Thursday, he regretted, for instance that, currently, there was no reliable data on the issuing of health certificates to food vendors in the district.

It was estimated that 385 food vendors claimed to have obtained health certificates last year, but only about 65 of them had renewed their certificates this year.

Dr Ofosu expressed concern that many uncertified food vendors were operating at the detriment of the ordinary wayside food consumers. He said even though there were no records of cholera victims in the district so far, diarrhoea cases were on the increase due to poor sanitation and personal hygiene.

The Director expressed concern about the high rate of malaria cases in the district, especially among pregnant women and children under five years and urged the people to patronize the insecticide-treated mosquito nests.

Dr Ofosu asked mothers to feed their children with balanced diet to prevent anaemia infection.

On the HIV/AIDS prevalence, Dr Ofosu lamented that the district moved up from the third position on the nat ionwide sentinel survey last year to the second position this year. He urged the people to control their sexual habits to abstain from contracting the disease.