Level 500 students from the Department of Community Health of the University of Ghana Medical School, Korle-Bu at the weekend called on Ghanaians to refrain from using "Camphor" in treating drinking water since it has nephotoxic effects on the kidney.

The medical students were speaking during a Feed Back Durbar of a health survey conducted at Mpoase, a suburb of Accra. The medical students explained that "camphor" damages the kidney and allows body waste to be accumulated in the blood system.

They added that at the resultant end when the kidney is damaged, blood will be found in the urine. The students called on Ghanaians to strain the water they drink instead of using camphor for the treatment of water.

The feedback durbar was part of the Junior Clerkship by the students studying Community Health in the Medical School, to annually undertake a health survey in a chosen community by conducting surveys to learn how to identify demographic and socio-economic characteristics of a typical community.

The survey also help the medical students to study the factors that affect the health of the people in that community, learn how to plan, conduct health survey and to provide feedback to the community on ways of improving their health status.

Some of the results gathered during the week-long survey at Mpoase revealed that, Mpoase community needed more refuse collection bins at vantage points in the township to prevent the breeding of mosquitoes and house flies which spread malaria and dysentery.

The Mpoase community needed to increase the number of the only two public toilets in the township to prevent defecating at the beaches and surroundings, which enhances the spread of gastro-intestinal diseases.

The drainage system in the township needed to be increased to prevent stagnated water within the environment, which breeds mosquitoes. The medical students also appealed to Ghanaians not to shun HIV/AIDS patients but rather accept them into the community in which they leave.

They also recommended to mothers to exclusively breastfeed their babies for the first six months. On family planning, only 32 per cent of Mpoase inhabitants use family planning and this has resulted in the increase of birth rate in the community with attendant socio-economic implications.

Two-thirds of the pregnant women in the community do not attend ante-natal clinic care delivery, resulting in the death of a significant proportion of children at a very early age due to preventable diseases.

In an interview with the GNA, the MP for the South Ablekuma, Ms. Theresa Ameeley Tagoe, said it was true that the Mpoase township in the Ablekuma constituency had no refuse collection bins and explained that most of the land-lords do not allow the bins to be cited on their plots and she was trying hard to locate them at a place she had already earmarked in the area.

On the drainage system, she said work was on-going on their construction. Ms. Tagoe said she has accessed some money from the European Union to construct water-closet toilets in each of the communities. She added that she would arrange for a small health post to be built for the community to help the sick during emergencies, especially during the night.